Judge asks why Capitol rioters are paying just $1.5 million for attack, while U.S. taxpayers will pay more than $500 million
By Spencer S. Hsu
Today at 3:29 p.m. EDT
A federal judge on Monday questioned why U.S. prosecutors are asking Capitol riot defendants to pay only $1.5 million in restitution while American taxpayers are paying more than $500 million to cover the costs of the Jan. 6 attack by a pro-Trump mob.
Chief U.S. District Judge Beryl A. Howell of Washington challenged the toughness of the Justice Department’s stance in a plea hearing for a Colorado Springs man who admitted to one of four nonviolent misdemeanor counts of picketing in the U.S. Capitol.
Howell has already asked in another defendant’s plea hearing whether no-prison misdemeanor plea deals offered by the government are too lenient for individuals involved in “terrorizing members of Congress,” asking pointedly whether the government had “any concern about deterrence?”
On Monday, she pressed the U.S. attorney’s office in Washington on why it was seeking to require only $2,000 in each felony case and $500 in each misdemeanor case.
“I’m accustomed to the government being fairly aggressive in terms of fraud when there have been damages that accrue from a criminal act for the restitution amount,” said Howell, a former Brooklyn federal prosecutor and Senate Judiciary Committee general counsel.
“Where we have Congress acting, appropriating all this money due directly to the events of January 6, I have found the damage amount of less than $1.5 million — when all of us American taxpayers are about to foot the bill for close to half a billion dollars — a little bit surprising,” she said.
Congress passes $2.1 billion in emergency funding for Capitol security and Afghan resettlement
The judge alluded to a $2.1 billion security bill passed overwhelmingly July 29 by Congress to cover the costs of the Jan. 6 attack, including reimbursements totaling $521 million for the National Guard and $70 million to the Capitol Police, plus $300 million for Capitol security improvements.
more:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/legal-issues/capitol-riot-costs-defendants-pay/2021/08/09/ff05f4b0-f923-11eb-9c0e-97e29906a970_story.html
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