Jan. 6 defendants ramp up claims for million-dollar US payouts

Zoe Tillman, Bloomberg News on Aug 7, 2026

By clicking submit, I authorize Arcamax and its affiliates to: (1) use, sell, and share my information for marketing purposes, including cross-context behavioral advertising, as described in our Privacy Policy , (2) add to information that I provide with other information like interests inferred from web page views, or data lawfully obtained from data brokers, such as past purchase or location data, or publicly available data, (3) contact me or enable others to contact me by email or other means with offers for different types of goods and services, and (4) retain my information while I am engaging with marketing messages that I receive and for a reasonable amount of time thereafter. I understand I can opt out at any time through an email that I receive, or by clicking here

WASHINGTON — Dozens of people who were charged or convicted in connection with the violent riots at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, have filed lawsuits seeking millions of dollars from the U.S. government after the Trump administration walked back the sprawling prosecution effort.

The latest case, filed on Friday in Washington, was brought on behalf of 12 former Jan. 6 defendants, including one man found guilty of seditious conspiracy against the government in a high-profile case involving the extremist group the Oath Keepers. Earlier in the week, a judge “reluctantly” let the government dismiss the original indictment.

The claimants in the new case are each seeking at least $1 million, alleging they were victims of a “malicious prosecution” and suffered emotional distress and other harms. The case is one of at least a dozen Jan. 6 compensation lawsuits filed to date, according to Bloomberg’s analysis of court records.

Cases filed by Jan. 6 defendants have picked up in recent months, after litigants said they exhausted a months-long administrative process that’s required under U.S. law before they can take the government to court.

President Donald Trump signed an executive order on his first day in office granting sweeping clemency to the more than 1,500 people charged with crimes related to Jan. 6. Thousands, many of them Trump supporters, descended on the Capitol complex that day and temporarily stopped a joint session of Congress to certify Joe Biden as the winner of the 2020 presidential contest.

The president also commuted the sentences of 14 people convicted in prosecutions related to the Oath Keepers and the far-right Proud Boys group that involved allegations of seditious conspiracy, a rarely-charged felony. One of those people, Roberto Minuta, was part of the new compensation lawsuit filed Friday.

Some lawyers representing Jan. 6 defendants have expressed frustration that the Trump administration hasn’t moved faster to compensate their clients and, in some instances, denied administrative claims.

Earlier this year, the Justice Department took steps to create a special $1.8 billion fund for victims of alleged “weaponization” by the government, a proposal that was widely seen as intended to benefit Jan. 6 defendants. Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche walked away from that plan — which was part of a broader deal to end Trump’s $10 billion lawsuit against the Internal Revenue Service — after facing pushback from Republicans in Congress.

Trump has continued to support the idea of the fund. It’s unclear if the Justice Department has approved any Jan. 6 administrative claims so far, because that process is generally not public. None of the lawsuits filed so far have reached a final resolution.

A Justice Department spokesperson did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Friday. Peter Ticktin, a conservative attorney representing the Jan. 6 defendants, also did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The case is Andrews v. United states, 26-cv-26-cv-2797, U.S. District Court, District of Columbia.