Pardoned US January 6 rioters want money from Trump

2.9.2025
US citizens convicted and jailed for participating in the infamous January 6, 2020, insurrection are now seeking monetary compensation after their crimes were pardoned by President Donald Trump.
The rioters who attempted to overthrow the election of President Joe Biden in 2020, were given full pardoned by Trump, who was accused of instigating the riots, when he regained power for a second term in January 2025.
Lawyers for the rioters are lobbying the Trump administration to pay their clients restitution for what they describe as unfair prosecutions.
One of the leading attorneys for the rioters is Mark McCloskey, who gained fame during the 2020 pandemic when he pointed an AR-15-style rifle at protesters outside his home in St. Louis.
McCloskey told his clients during a social media meeting last week that he had met with top officials at the DOJ and presented them with a blueprint to create a committee responsible for handing out financial compensation to the rioters, according to the New York Times.
The special panel would be called a ‘voluntary nonjudicial resolution committee’ and would evaluate each rioter’s case on an individual basis.
McCloskey claims he is pushing for US prosecutor Jeanine Pirro to lead the panel. Pirro now leads the DC prosecutors’ office responsible for sending the rioters to prison.
“The only thing I can do as your lawyer…is to turn your losses into dollar bills,’ he reportedly told the rioters during the online session.
If successful, the restitution panel would reshape the image of the Capitol rioters as victims of the federal government.