Prison to Pardons to Payouts: Jan. 6 Rioters Are Elated at Trump's $1.8 Billion Fund

[BlueWaveNeverEnd]

https://www.nytimes.com/2026/05/20/us/politics/jan-6-rioters-trump-fund-payouts.html


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Mr. Vo, who briefly fled the country to avoid his prison sentence stemming from the riot, said he did not know at first that the fund had come about as part of a larger deal by President Trump to withdraw an extraordinary lawsuit filed against the Internal Revenue Service. But the origins of the fund, he said, were less important than how it made him feel: surprised, relieved and grateful all at once.

“I’m glad it turned into something,” he explained, “that could help people who have been hurting for quite a while now

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“So many questions,” said Enrique Tarrio, the leader of the far-right Proud Boys who was sentenced to 22 years on a seditious conspiracy conviction arising from the riot. “But it’s a good direction.”

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“This is the UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE acknowledging the possibility that Americans were targeted through political abuse of government power,” Tommy Tatum, a Mississippi man who was charged with civil disorder for interfering with the police on Jan. 6, wrote on Monday in a post on social media. “That is historic.”

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“We’ve been trampled on so much, I think finally we feel like we’re getting a little something and maybe we’re relieved,” said Daniel Christmann, one of the rioters. “But this is chump change. Even when Trump divorced Marla Maples and he was getting interviewed on it, he admitted that a million dollars isn’t a lot of money.”