Two police officers who defended the U.S. Capitol from a violent mob on Jan. 6, 2021, filed a lawsuit in federal court against the Trump administration, arguing that the newly-announced $1.8 billion "Anti-Weaponization Fund" is both illegal and dangerous. At the same time, former Jan. 6 defendants are already preparing their applications to the fund and anticipating major payouts.
The Justice Department has indicated that the fund will be used to compensate an unspecified group of people "who suffered weaponization and lawfare" under previous presidential administrations. It is widely expected that at least some of the money will go to Trump supporters who attacked the Capitol on Jan. 6, and later received presidential pardons.
Facing questions from members of Congress and reporters, acting Attorney General Todd Blanche and Vice President JD Vance did not rule out payments to Jan. 6 rioters convicted of violent crimes against police officers.
"We're not making commitments to give anybody money," Vance said Tuesday at the White House. "We're just making commitments to look at things case by case."
Daniel Hodges, a Washington, D.C., police officer who was repeatedly assaulted and crushed in a door frame by Jan. 6 rioters, is one of the plaintiffs seeking to block the fund.
"Why would you pay people who attacked the police at the Capitol of the United States who tried to stop the peaceful transfer of power?" Hodges told NPR. "Why would you pay people who wanted to assassinate the vice president? You know, the list goes on and on. It doesn't make any sense."
Hodges said he and other officers who defended the Capitol continue to receive death threats, and that giving money to the people convicted of assaulting police could feed further harassment and violence.
"If they get this payout, then they'll have significant financial resources," Hodges said, "and they have no ethical qualms about it, so what would stop them from carrying out any more violence?"
Hodges continues to serve on Washington, D.C.'s Metropolitan Police Department and spoke to NPR in his personal capacity.
Former Capitol Police Officer Harry Dunn joined the lawsuit, which names acting Attorney General Blanche, as well as President Trump and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent as defendants.
Dunn and Hodges are represented by Brendan Ballou, a former federal prosecutor who worked on Jan. 6 cases and now leads the anti-corruption group Public Integrity Project.
"The Trump slush fund is potentially the most corrupt act of presidential power in American history," Ballou told NPR.
The lawsuit targets the unusual way in which the fund was created. Trump sued the federal government — of which he is the head — for $10 billion over the IRS leak of his private tax records, and then created this fund as part of a settlement over the claim.
"Donald Trump was functionally on both sides of the case," Ballou said.
The lawsuit also notes that Trump's mass pardons restored gun rights for many Jan. 6 defendants. The "Anti-Weaponization Fund," Ballou argues, could also provide them with a major financial windfall.
"They can get money, they can get guns," Ballou said. "And right now they have the endorsement of the president showing that they will be financially rewarded for their violence."
Rioters expect to be 'rewarded'
Jake Lang used a bat to attack police protecting the Capitol on Jan. 6. His trial for assault and other charges was pending when Trump ordered the case dismissed and released him from jail.
Lang does not dispute that he used the bat against police, but argues that his actions were justified as self-defense, because he believed that the 2020 election had been stolen.
Since his release from jail, he has become a white power, anti-immigrant, antisemitic and anti-Muslim activist and provocateur. He has been recorded on video using racist slurs, including the n-word, and giving a Nazi salute.
When contacted by NPR for comment on Wednesday, Lang answered the phone by saying, "Jake Lang's office, America's newest billionaire."
Lang said he was joking about becoming a billionaire, but confirmed that he plans to apply for compensation through the "Anti-Weaponization Fund" and expects other Jan. 6 defendants to do the same.
"The misdemeanor cases should be looking to receive several hundred thousand dollars," Lang said, "and some of the cases like mine may be looking at upwards of a million dollars."
Lang said Trump's message in establishing the fund was clear.
"If you sacrifice for your country, if you do the right thing in the face of evil, you will be rewarded for your bravery, for your patriotism, for the love of your country," Lang said. "That's the message President Trump is sending."
If Lang receives compensation from the Trump administration, the money could go towards his legal expenses. He is currently facing criminal charges in Minnesota, where he was recorded knocking down an ice sculpture protesting federal immigration enforcement, and in Washington, D.C., where he was charged with threatening a police officer. Lang has denied all wrongdoing in both cases.
Using 'Trump bucks' as hush money
Lang is one of dozens of former Jan. 6 defendants who have been charged or convicted of additional crimes since Trump issued mass pardons to the rioters.
In Florida, defendant Andrew Paul Johnson is currently serving a life sentence in prison for sexually abusing two young children. According to a police affidavit filed last year, Johnson told his victims that he would share a portion of restitution money that he expected to receive from the Trump Administration. "This tactic was believed to be used to keep [the victim] from exposing what Andrew had done to him," the affidavit said.
The mother of one of the victims, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to protect her child's privacy, told NPR that Johnson told the children he would buy them things with "my Trump bucks."
Johnson made those comments well before the announcement of the "Anti-Weaponization Fund," but at a time when some Trump Justice Department officials, including U.S. Pardon Attorney Ed Martin, were publicly discussing restitution for Jan. 6 defendants.
"He said not to tell anybody," one of Johnson's victims testified at his trial.
"We were scared," Johnson's other victim testified. "Like, we didn't realize that this stuff was not okay because we were 12 years old."
U.S. Sen. Chris Van Hollen, D-Md., pressed Blanche about Johnson's case at a congressional committee hearing.
Blanche said the facts of the case were "disgusting" and "it's horrible that that happened."
But he did not state whether Johnson would be eligible to apply for compensation through the "Anti-Weaponization Fund."
Speaking at the White House, Vance said that law schools and the media are biased against Jan. 6 rioters and Trump supporters compared with other criminal defendants.
"There are people who objectively committed heinous crimes, but the American media and the American legal academy has decided that even though they committed bad crimes, their sentence was disproportionate — they were mistreated in some way," Vance said. "You know who never ever gets an ounce of sympathy when it comes to that disproportionate sentencing is people who voted for Donald Trump and participated in the Jan. 6 protest."
According to NPR's database of the nearly 1,600 Jan. 6 criminal cases, the median prison sentence for Capitol riot defendants was 30 days. About a third of the rioters who went through sentencing received no jail time.
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