Jan. 6 rioters and election deniers are lining up for their piece of the Justice Department’s nearly $1.8 billion fund to compensate so-called “victims” of government weaponization.
Various individuals associated with the Capitol riots and attempts to overturn the 2020 election, like pillow pitchman Mike Lindell and Proud Boys leader Enrique Tarrio, have said they intend to cash in, as have non-public figures who served time in prison. They are now sharing their sob stories while expressing their appreciation for what critics say is a brazen “slush fund” by Donald Trump to reward allies.
Lindell, whose false claims about the election spurred costly defamation suits, company boycotts, and attention from the FBI, told CNN he believes MyPillow lost $400 million.
“I would say we were the number-one company in the world hurt by our own government,” said Lindell, 64, who is running for governor of Minnesota.
Lindell did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Tarrio was convicted in 2023 of seditious conspiracy and sentenced to 22 years in prison—the longest sentence for anyone involved in Jan. 6. His attorneys told CNN that he, too, was planning on sending a request for money from the fund.
“I’m not greedy,” Tarrio told Reuters. “But my life was all f---ed up because of this.” He said he figured he could get between $2 million and $5 million: “The Justice Department overprosecuted for political gain. So everyone deserves to get money.”
Brandon Fellows, who in February 2024 was sentenced to 42 months for a host of charges related to the insurrection, is also seeking reparations. Fellows, who told CNN he believes Jan. 6 was a “set up” and the 2020 election was “stolen,” said he had put in for $30 million—$21.5 million of which was for what he called “wrongful imprisonment.”
Rachel Powell, another pardoned rioter, was sentenced in October 2023 to 57 months in prison and three years of supervised release over nine total felony and misdemeanor charges, including “engaging in physical violence in a restricted building or grounds with a deadly or dangerous weapon.” Powell was seen repeatedly ramming a window of the Capitol building with a cylindrical object.
Powell, a mother of eight and a grandmother to eight, complained to CNN about how she was treated.
“I had three years of house arrest, then, having to endure everything I did through prison, and getting a five-year sentence on top of that—that’s clearly weaponization," she said.
Dominic Box spent 18 months in jail awaiting trial for nonviolent offenses. He was later convicted on two felony counts of civil disorder, as well as four misdemeanors. Before his sentencing, his case was dismissed last year in the wake of Trump’s mass pardons.
“I can’t find a way to support myself right now. I lost my career. I look forward to financial compensation. I need it. This will be a welcome relief,” Box told CNN.
“This is long overdue,” he added. “It’s not okay for hardworking, average Americans to be chewed up and destroyed as a collective boogeyman.”
Attorney Pete Ticktin told Reuters he intends on filing hundreds of claims. Trump pardoned nearly 1,600 people charged over the insurrection.
Additionally, some fake electors may be reaching out to the commission.
“This commission is a good idea,” Kevin Kijewski, a lawyer for Michigan fake elector Clifford Frost, told CNN. “Cliff paid a price personally, professionally and financially. His realtor business still hasn’t recovered since all this happened. Personal relationships were destroyed. The dismissal of criminal charges doesn’t pay back the legal fees and undo the damage.”
Meanwhile, at least one right-wing network has signaled an interest in the fund.
Chris Babcock, a lawyer for One America News, told CNN that the company was “seriously considering pursuing rights under this fund and will make a decision shortly about whether to file a claim.”
OAN settled defamation lawsuits with Smartmatic and Dominion Voting Systems.
OAN did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche defended the fund in a separate CNN interview on Wednesday, claiming the fund was not an abuse of taxpayer money.
“I very much disagree with the idea that the American taxpayer is indignant that a victim of weaponization [gets compensation],” he told CNN. “I think they do want their tax dollars spent on things like that.”
Also on Monday, lawyer Mike Howell, an ally of U.S. Pardon Attorney Ed Martin, wrote to Blanche making himself a candidate for the commission’s five-member panel, CBS News reported.
