Reparations Set for J6ers
The president dropped his justified lawsuit against the IRS and administrative claims against the DOJ to instead seek financial relief for J6ers and other victims of government abuses.
Are J6ers on the verge of finally receiving some measure of compensation for enduring years of torment by the Biden Department of Justice? It appears an agreement with the Internal Revenue Service just laid the groundwork to establish restitution fund to make J6ers and others at least partially whole for the life-destroying abuses inflicted by the federal government.
On Monday, the president’s attorneys filed a motion to voluntarily dismiss his lawsuit against the IRS for the unlawful disclosure of Trump’s tax documents to the New York Times in 2019, which resulted in a bombshell Times article just weeks before the 2020 election that claimed the president was a tax scofflaw. An IRS contractor, Charles Littlejohn, was indicted on minor charges in 2023 for stealing and sharing thousands of IRS files to the Times and ProPublica; he was sentenced to five years in prison.
Earlier this year, the president—in addition to Eric Trump and the Trump organization—sued the IRS for $10 billion in damages related to the disclosures. “Mr. Littlejohn’s unlawful disclosure of Plaintiffs’ tax returns and related information to The New York Times and ProPublica caused reputational and financial harm to Plaintiffs and adversely impacted President Trump’s support among voters in the 2020 presidential election,” his attorneys wrote in the lawsuit. They also cited prosecutors in the Littlejohn case, who accused the IRS worker of “[seeking] to influence an election and to reshape our nation’s political discourse and political process.”
Shortly after filing the dismissal notice—since the president in effect represents both the plaintiff and the defendant, no action is needed by the judge according to a footnote in today’s filing—Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche announced the creation of an “Anti-Weaponization Fund” in the amount of $1,766,000,000 in honor of the country’s founding in 1776. “The machinery of government should never be weaponized against any American, and it is this Department’s intention to make right the wrongs that were previously done while ensuring this never happens again,” Blanche said in a press release. “As part of this settlement, we are setting up a lawful process for victims of lawfare and weaponization to be heard and seek redress.” As part of the agreement, the president also will drop administrative claims against the DOJ for damages related to the Russiagate hoax and the 2022 FBI raid of Mar-a-Lago.
According to ABC News, a five-member commission will handle claims filed by weaponization victims; four members will be appointed by Blanche. Money will be held in the government’s existing judgement fund.
Relief Finally on the Way, Unprecedented Abuses to be Exposed
The four-year targeting of Americans who protested at the Capitol on January 6, 2021 by Joe Biden and his DOJ represented the largest criminal investigation and prosecution in U.S. history. Nearly 1,600 individuals were hunted down by the FBI, mostly on petty misdemeanor charges. The DOJ’s unprecedented use of a post-Enron accounting fraud statute, 18 USC 1512(c)(2) resulted in felony indictments for more than 300 J6s in June 2024, the Supreme Court ruled the statue had been applied illegally.
Matthew Graves, the Biden-appointed U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia, charged on average one J6er per day during his reign of terror at the most powerful U.S. Attorney’s office. His prosecutors not only piled on charges against Trump supporters but then sought excessive prison sentences; in fact, their abuses were so brazen that the D.C. appellate court twice overturned sentencing practices pursued by prosecutors related to misdemeanor cases and a sentencing enhancement for those convicted of the unlawful 1512(c)(2) charge.
Judges in Washington worked in lockstep with the Biden DOJ to inflict maximum damage to J6ers and their families. Several nonviolent offenders were nonetheless denied release and held in a special prison in the nation’s capital. Many judges adopted the false language of the Biden DOJ, referring to the events of January 6 as an “insurrection” and imposing terror enhancements usually reserved for legit terrorists not U.S. political protesters. Several judges claimed police officers had been killed that day and insisted protesters attempted to “overthrow democracy” on January 6.
Hundreds of J6ers were sent to federal prisons even on low-level misdemeanors. At least four J6ers committed suicide rather than continue to endure the torture inflicted by the government and the news media.
Never before has the full force of the three branches of government—the January 6 Select Committee played a key role in demonizing J6ers and influencing the jury pool in Washington—collaborated in such an unconstitutional, unlawful, and inhumane way to destroy the lives of so many American citizens for exercising their First Amendment rights.
The president took the first step in attempting to undue the damage by pardoning all but a handful of J6er on his first day in office.
J6ers Applaud the President
“Having lived through political prosecution, persecution, punishment, public vilification, and efforts to silence dissent, I understand firsthand what happens when the weight of government, media narratives, and political hostility converge against ordinary Americans,” Christopher Kuehne, a retired Marine Corps captain and Purple Heart recipient, told me following the announcement of the fund. Kuehne was subjected to an armed FBI raid in February 2021 for his minor participation in Jan. 6; the trauma of the raid caused his pregnant wife, Annette, to miscarry the next day.
“Families were torn apart. Reputations were destroyed. Livelihoods were threatened. The proposed $1.7 billion weaponization fund represents, at a minimum, a start in the right direction toward restoring faith for those who were politically targeted, persecuted, or unfairly punished. This is not about revenge. It is about restoring trust, accountability, and the principles that separate a constitutional republic from systems driven by fear, selective enforcement, and political retaliation.”
Sharon Caldwell, the wife of Thomas Caldwell, another decorated military veteran subjected to a dangerous FBI raid then indicted on nonviolent offenses, told me they are “grateful” to the president for creating the fund. “It could be a creative way to compensate weaponization victims for what they suffered. But, it’s nowhere near enough money to fairly compensate just the J6ers alone for their losses. So many lost everything: savings, homes, businesses, marriages, lives & more. It’s a good start, but more is needed.”
One of two men falsely accused of trying to kill Capitol Police officer Brian Sicknick told me that clearing his name in the incident is the most important thing to him.
“I was framed by the FBI from start to finish,” George Tanios, who was held in the D.C. gulag for five months related to the “attack” on Sicknick before the D.C. appellate court overturned Judge Thomas Hogan’s detention order in 2021, told me today. Tanios eventually pleaded guilty to disorderly conduct in 2022. “The Biden Administration and the judges that oversaw our cases threw every norm out the window and came at J6er with a heavy hand. It broke just about all of us and killed some. It’s time to remedy this great injustice that was done to so many great Americans. God Bless President Trump and this great Nation.”
This is a great first step, Julie, and I suspect you know more about this than any of us given your close involvement through the years. My big question is when will those involved in this despicable activity be prosecuted and incarcerated? I believe you’ve told us that at least some have been fired, but prosecution of these miscreants is the best way to avoid recurrence.
Hallelujah!