Will Jan. 6 defendants go from prison to payday?
Consider This from NPR
NPR
4.2 • 6.2K Ratings
🗓️ 21 May 2026
⏱️ 6 minutes
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Summary
The new “Anti-Weaponization Fund” from the Trump Department of Justice is a pot of money worth almost $1.8 billion from a settlement between President Trump, and the government he leads.
Trump officials say anyone who believes they were victims of “weaponized” law enforcement can apply for this taxpayer-funded compensation.
And that includes the hundreds of people who assaulted police at the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | It's considered this where every day we go deep on one big news story. Today, the new anti-weaponization |
| 0:07.3 | fund from the Trump Department of Justice, a pot of money worth almost $1.8 billion from a settlement |
| 0:13.9 | between President Trump and the government he leads. Trump officials say anyone who believes |
| 0:19.6 | they were so-called victims of quote-unquote |
| 0:22.1 | weaponized law enforcement can apply for this taxpayer-funded compensation. And that includes |
| 0:27.7 | the hundreds of people who assaulted police at the Capitol on January 6, 2021. |
| 0:33.6 | We do have people who were accused of attacking law enforcement officers. |
| 0:44.4 | That doesn't mean that we're going to completely ignore some of the claims that they're going to make. |
| 0:48.5 | Vice President J.D. Vance spoke to reporters from the White House earlier this week. |
| 0:51.0 | We're going to evaluate these things on a case-by-case basis. |
| 0:55.2 | And if we think that somebody, whatever they were accused of, if we think that somebody was unfairly prosecuted and deserves just compensation, then that's what this fund |
| 1:02.3 | is going to exist to provide. It's just going to correct a wrong, and I think that's a good thing. |
| 1:06.5 | But Democrats and a growing number of Republicans in Congress disagree. |
| 1:11.1 | I think it's stupid on stilts. |
| 1:13.1 | Tom Tillis is a Republican senator from North Carolina. |
| 1:16.0 | He spoke to Spectrum News at the Capitol. |
| 1:17.9 | Your taxpayer dollars and my taxpayer dollars could potentially compensate someone who assaulted a police officer admitted their guilt, got convicted, got pardoned, |
| 1:30.7 | and now we're going to pay them for that? |
| 1:32.8 | Consider this. January 6th defendants may go from prison to a payday. |
| 1:37.4 | Can the police officers who defended the Capitol stop them? |
| 1:42.0 | From NPR, I'm Scott Detrow. |
| 1:54.8 | It's considered this from NPR. |
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