Rep. Gerry Connolly (D-VA11): “Trump’s Pardons Stick Taxpayers With the Bill for January 6 Attack”

President Trump’s Blanket Pardon of January 6 Offenders Means They No Longer Have to Pay Their Court-Ordered Restitutions

“On his first day in office, despite warnings from senior Republicans, President Trump issued a blanket pardon to the more than 1,500 people charged in the deadly January 6, 2021, insurrection at the U.S. Capitol.  While these sentences can be erased with the stroke of a pen, the damage done that day is not so easily repaired,” wrote Ranking Member Connolly.  “The total cost of the insurrection to the taxpayers is estimated to be $2.7 billion, and that does not account for the lives lost due to the violence that day.  Thanks to President Trump’s reckless pardons, convicted rioters can not only walk freely, but they also are no longer required to pay their court-ordered restitutions, much of which was owed directly to your office.”

Restitution was “one of the most common sentences handed down” to January 6th insurrectionists, but offenders were slow to repay their obligations, and taxpayers were “far from being made whole.”  A June 2024 CBS News investigation found that only a small fraction—$437,000, which is just 15%—of the nearly $3 million owed in restitution by Jan. 6 offenders for the damage they inflicted on the Capitol had been repaid in the years since the attack.

The official numbers from the Architect of the Capitol remain unknown and must be released.

The Government Accountability Office estimated that the true cost to taxpayers was $2.7 billion, a figure that included property damage, expenses incurred by the Capitol Police, the District of Columbia, and federal agencies, and costs to improve security.

However, many of the costs of the January 6th attempted coup cannot be measured in dollars.  Five police officers lost their lives as a result of the attack and scores more were injured.  There has also been lasting harm to the psyche of the American people and to our democracy.

“The American people deserve to know how much they have been forced to pay to fix the damage of the January 6th attack while insurrectionists have been let off scot-free. Releasing these figures is not just a matter of fiscal accountability.  With President Trump attempting to whitewash history, the unpaid restitution must serve as a concrete record of the damage inflicted to the people’s Capitol on that terrible day,” concluded Ranking Member Connolly.

Click here to read the letter to Architect of the Capitol Thomas E. Austin.

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