在司法部宣布17.76亿美元后不到一周”反武器化基金“为了补偿那些声称自己在拜登政府下被错误瞄准的人，1月6日唐纳德·特朗普总统的被告和盟友正在排队寻求他们在史无前例的赔偿基金中的份额。
当他竞选州长时，我的枕头首席执行官兼特朗普的盟友迈克·林德尔(Mike Lindell)坐在明尼苏达州竞选活动外的车里告诉美国广播公司新闻，他希望他的公司员工从该基金中获得数百万美元，因为他认为拜登政府在2020年大选后对他的行动进行了武器化。
林德尔是2020年选举欺诈索赔的主要支持者之一，他告诉美国广播公司新闻，第三方审计员估计他的公司和员工为此损失了4亿美元与选举有关的诉讼以及选举后的政府调查。虽然林德尔说，他个人并不指望从该基金中获得任何资金，但他说，他希望他的员工——他们拥有我的枕头的股份——可以申请赔偿。
“我很高兴看到这可能是一种更快的方式让我的员工都受到伤害——他们中的一些人失去了一切——所以我认为这对每个人来说都是一件真正的好事，”林德尔说。“当一个政府在所有这些项目中追逐和伤害人们的时候...这是为了帮助有需要的人而设立的，但我们的政府却这样对他们。”
该基金由DOJ创建，以换取特朗普总统同意放弃他的100亿美元的诉讼反对国税局以及两起索赔2 . 3亿美元的民事诉讼与他在第一个任期内面临的俄罗斯勾结调查和2022年对他的Mar-a-Lago房产的搜查有关，这促使众议院民主党人抨击这一安排是“迫使美国人民把...钱进了他的口袋，还有他的家人和朋友的口袋。”
“所有这些都在宪法之外，”众议院司法委员会的民主党人杰米·拉斯金说。“所有这些都超出了国会的支出能力，因此是非法的。是违宪的。”
向赔偿基金提交索赔的程序将在未来几个月内建立，根据和解协议，代理司法部长托德·布兰奇(Todd Blanche)有30天的时间创建基金并任命了五名专员。然而，消息人士称，周四，一些参议院共和党人——包括一些直言不讳的特朗普支持者——私下抨击布兰奇，告诉他他们认为该基金可能会让共和党在11月失去参议院的多数席位。
曾与数百名1月6日的被告打过交道的佛罗里达州律师彼得·蒂克廷(Peter Ticktin)说，他相信他的大约400名客户将能够向该基金提出索赔。
“我预计这一过程将根据严重程度制定某种尺度，”蒂克廷说，他说他的许多客户都因为与1月6日的事件有关而失去了工作、生意和声誉对国会大厦的袭击.
虽然司法部尚未建立索赔程序，但Ticktin说，他建议他的客户填写一份用于提交行政侵权索赔的政府表格——称为标准表格95——如果索赔在六个月内未获批准，就提起诉讼。
“我认为，如果有诉讼，我们将处于更有利的谈判地位，”他说。“我们可以接受他们提供给我们的东西，也可以继续我们的诉讼，但如果我们不提起诉讼，那么唯一的选择就是接受他们给我们的东西。”
骄傲男孩前领导人安立奎·塔里奥(Enrique Tarrio)被判犯有煽动阴谋罪，并于2023年9月被判处死刑最长的句子在他和其他所有1月6日被告被特朗普赦免之前，所有被定罪的1月6日暴徒中，也有一部分人对该基金虎视眈眈。
“从一开始，我们的立场就一直坚定不移:起诉和此事的相关情况构成了严重的误判，”塔里奥的律师纳伊布·哈桑在一份声明中告诉美国广播公司新闻。
“当政府建立审查、释放和向类似情况的个人返还资金的流程或机制时，我们的客户打算寻求法律规定的所有救济和补救措施，”哈桑在谈到1月6日没有出现在国会大厦的塔里奥时说。
其他有兴趣申请该基金的人包括前密歇根州选举人梅肖恩·马多克以及保守派律师约翰·伊斯曼假选举人阴谋.
亚当·约翰逊——因其在国会大厦的照片而在社交媒体上被称为“讲台上的家伙”承载着南希·佩洛西的领奖台在1月6日的袭击中-在承认进入并留在一个受限建筑后被判入狱75天。他周三表示，他目前正在向赔偿基金投诉，并估计他在这起案件上至少花费了25.5万美元。
“这张照片带来的耻辱将载入史册。他们对我的所作所为将对我的家庭和他们的生计产生一代人的影响，”约翰逊在X上写道，他的个人资料照片是他站在讲台上的照片。
周三，前特朗普政府官员迈克尔·卡普托(Michael Caputo)在社交媒体上表示，他在要求270万美元从基金里。卡普托在特朗普的第一个任期内担任卫生与公众服务部的发言人，他声称自己是美国联邦调查局调查俄罗斯干涉2016年大选和拜登政府另一项调查的目标。
特朗普的一些政治对手也盯上了该基金。迈克尔·科恩-特朗普的长期律师，他攻击了总统，并在他的曼哈顿作证刑事封口费审判然后后来声称，他感到检察官强迫他作证指控特朗普——本周表示，他希望从赔偿基金中获得支付。
“你真的认为唐纳德·特朗普会想要你有钱吗?”CNN的杰克·塔珀周四问科恩。
“大概不会，”科恩说。“但如果他真的决定这么做，那不是很好吗?”
Trump allies, Jan. 6 defendants lining up to apply for $1.7 billion 'Anti-Weaponization Fund'
Less than a week after the Justice Department announced a $1.776 billion "Anti-Weaponization Fund" to compensate those who allege they were wrongly targeted under the Biden administration, Jan. 6 defendants and allies of President Donald Trump are lining up to seek their share of the unprecedented compensation fund.
Sitting in his car outside a campaign event in Minnesota as he runs for governor, My Pillow CEO and Trump ally Mike Lindell told ABC News he hopes his company employees receive millions from the fund for what he believes is the weaponization of the Biden administration against him for his actions after the 2020 election.
Lindell -- one of the leading proponents of 2020 election fraud claims -- told ABC News that third-party auditors estimate his company and employees lost $400 million for theelection-related lawsuitsand government investigations that followed the election. While Lindell said he personally does not expect to get any money from the fund, he said he hopes his employees -- who own a stake of My Pillow -- can apply for compensation.
"I was glad to see it might be a faster way to get my employees that all were hurt -- some of them lost everything -- and so I think it's a real good thing for everybody," Lindell said. "When a government goes after and damages people in all these programs ... this is set up to help people in need, but our government did it to them."
The fund was created by the DOJ in exchange for President Trump agreeing to drop his$10 billion lawsuitagainst the IRS as well astwo civil claims for $230 millionrelated to the Russia collusion investigation he faced during his first term in office and the 2022 search of his Mar-a-Lago estate -- prompting House Democrats to blast the arrangement as "collusive litigation to force the American people to put ... money into his pockets, and the pockets of his family and friends."
"All of this is outside of the Constitution," said Rep. Jamie Raskin, the top Democrat on the House Judiciary Committee. "All of it is outside of congressional spending power, and so it is illegal. It is unconstitutional."
The process for submitting claims to the compensation fund is set to be created in the coming months, with Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche given 30 days under the settlement agreement tocreate the fundand appoint five commissioners. On Thursday, however, some Senate Republicans -- including some vocal Trump supporters -- lashed out against Blanche behind closed doors, telling him they believed the fund could cost Republicans their Senate majority in November, sources said.
Peter Ticktin, a Florida-based attorney who has worked with hundreds of Jan. 6 defendants, said he believes approximately 400 of his clients will be able to stake a claim with the fund.
"I'm anticipating that the process is to develop some kind of a scale that would be depending on the degrees of severity," said Ticktin, who said many of his clients have lost their jobs, businesses, and reputations because of their association with the Jan. 6attack on the Capitol.
While the Department of Justice has not established a process for claims, Ticktin said he is advising his clients to fill out a government form used to file administrative tort claims -- called the Standard Form 95 -- then file a lawsuit if the claim has not been approved within six months.
"I think we'll be in a better bargaining position if there's a lawsuit," he said. "We can either accept what they offer to us or we can go ahead with our lawsuit, but if we don't file, then the only option is to take what they give us."
Enrique Tarrio, the former Proud Boys leader who was convicted on seditious conspiracy charges and sentenced in September 2023 to thelongest sentenceof all of the convicted Jan. 6 rioters before he and all other Jan. 6 defendants were pardoned by Trump, is also eyeing the fund.
"From the outset, our position has remained steadfast: The prosecution and surrounding circumstances of this matter constituted a serious miscarriage of justice," Tarrio's attorney Nayib Hassan told ABC News in a statement.
"When the government establishes the process or mechanism for the review, release, and return of funds to individuals similarly situated, our client intends to pursue all relief and remedies available under the law," Hassan said regarding Tarrio, who himself was not present at the Capitol on Jan. 6.
Others interested in potentially applying for the fund include former Michigan elector Meshawn Maddock, as well as conservative attorney John Eastman, who helped devise the so-calledfake elector plot.
Adam Johnson -- known on social media as "The Lectern Guy" for the photo of him in the Capitolcarrying Nancy Pelosi's podiumduring the Jan. 6 attack -- was sentenced to 75 days in prison after pleading guilty to entering and remaining in a restricted building. He said on Wednesday that he is currently writing his complaint to the compensation fund and estimated that he spent at least $255,000 on his case.
"The infamy gained from this photo will be in history books. What they did to me will have a generational effect on my family and their livelihoods," Johnson wrote on X, where his profile photo is the image of him with the podium.
On Wednesday, former Trump administration official Michael Caputo said on social media that he isrequesting $2.7 millionfrom the fund. Caputo -- who served as a spokesperson for the Department of Health and Human Services during Trump's first term -- claimed he was targeted by the FBI probe into Russian interference in the 2016 election and in another investigation under the Biden administration.
Some of Trump's political adversaries are also eying the fund. Michael Cohen -- Trump's longtime attorney who turned on the president and testified at his Manhattancriminal hush money trialthen later claimed that he felt coerced by prosecutors to testify against Trump -- said this week that he wants a payment from the compensation fund.
"Do you really think Donald Trump is going to want you to have any money?" CNN's Jake Tapper asked Cohen on Thursday.
"Probably not," Cohen said. "But wouldn't that be something if he actually decided to do it?"
