A group of Democratic senators is asking the Justice Department to help prevent convicted U.S. Capitol rioters from being reimbursed by taxpayers for court-ordered fines.
“These criminals are apparently demanding taxpayer compensation, not only to refund court-ordered restitution to cover damages they caused to the Capitol Building, but also to compensate them for having to face legal consequences for their actions,” the letter reads.
In a request submitted to a D.C. federal judge on Monday, riot defendant Richard Barnett cited Mr. Trump’s pardon and Barnett’s appeal of his conviction as part of a justification for the reimbursement of $2,455 in restitution and court assessment payments. Barnett’s argument, in part, cited prior cases of pardon defendants.
It said the Justice Department’s decision in February to vacate his case “wipes the slate clean, and restores to the defendant both the presumption of innocence and the right to be paid money based on a now vacated conviction.”
Barnett was found guilty by a Washington, D.C., grand jury in 2023, after prosecutors successfully argued he was on the front lines of the mob and was photographed with his feet on a desk in the office of then-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, a California Democrat.
Last month, U.S. District Judge John Bates ordered the reimbursement of restitution payments to Jan. 6 defendant Yvonne St. Cyr, who was found guilty of obstructing law enforcement and other offenses as part of the Capitol riot.
Bates directed the U.S. Treasury to pay the defendant back $2,270. The judge noted that St. Cyr was in the process of appealing her case when Mr. Trump returned to office, and an appellate court moved to vacate her conviction because she received a pardon from the president, so in “the eyes of the law, no conviction ever existed.”
Bates’ 15-page order opened, “Sometimes a judge is called upon to do what the law requires, even if it may seem at odds with what justice or one’s initial instincts might warrant. This is one such occasion.”
But in a separate case, U.S. District Judge Randolph Moss denied a refund request by convicted Capitol riot participant Hector Vargas Santos. The Justice Department had supported his request.
The Democratic senators’ letter to the Justice Department, led by Sen. Alex Padilla of California, who is the vice chair of the Senate Rules Committee, said the efforts for repayments are part of a broader effort to rewrite the history of the Capitol insurrection. The letter called it “an attempt to rewrite history and paint themselves as sympathetic victims.”
“Misusing taxpayer funds to financially reward those insurrectionists because they were prosecuted and convicted for their violent and destructive acts is unthinkable,” the letter reads.
