‘This is long overdue’: Jan. 6 rioters and election deniers celebrate Trump’s $1.8 billion compensation fund

(CNN) — Supporters of President Donald Trump who tried to overturn the 2020 election are among those eager to potentially cash in from the $1.8 billion compensation fund for people the Trump administration believes were victims of government “weaponization and lawfare.”

In interviews with CNN, convicted US Capitol rioters from January 6, 2021, fake electors and prominent election deniers said they’re hoping to tap the massive fund, which they think is long overdue.

“I can’t even find a job answering the phone at a motorcycle dealership,” said convicted January 6 rioter Dominic Box, who spent 1.5 years in jail awaiting trial and was later pardoned by Trump. “I can’t find a way to support myself right now. I lost my career. I look forward to financial compensation. I need it. This will be a welcome relief.”

MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell told CNN he believes his company lost $400 million due to what he views as government weaponization in the aftermath of the 2020 election. He was perhaps the loudest promoter of baseless voter-fraud claims – drawing boycotts from businesses, defamation lawsuits and even FBI scrutiny.

“I would say we were the number-one company in the world hurt by our own government,” said Lindell.

A lawyer for One America News, the pro-Trump channel that promoted false 2020 vote-rigging claims, also confirmed to CNN that the company is “seriously considering pursuing rights under this fund.” OAN was later dropped by most large cable providers and also settled multiple 2020-related defamation lawsuits.

Top Trump administration officials, including Vice President JD Vance and acting Attorney General Todd Blanche, have dodged questions over whether people convicted of January 6-related crimes, including people who assaulted police, should be awarded any of the funds.

“Anybody can apply,” Blanche told lawmakers during a budget hearing Tuesday, noting that even people who stormed the Capitol can submit claims that will be reviewed by a five-member commission that he’ll appoint.

The fund is open to a much broader swath of Trump allies, far beyond the 2020 election. Potential recipients could include people who were scrutinized during special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation into Russian meddling in the 2016 election, Trump administration officials who were entangled in Trump-Ukraine impeachment in 2019, and others.

The first known potential claimant, Trump adviser Michael Caputo, was investigated by Mueller in part because of his connections to Russian officials. He was never charged and is seeking $2.7 million in restitution because, he said, the probes cost him and his family, financially and beyond.

Former FBI Director James Comey joked on CNN that he may also have a claim to file, given that the Trump administration tried and failed in prosecuting him for allegedly lying to Congress and now filed new charges alleging that a picture of seashells on the beach spelling out “86 47” constituted a threat against Trump.

“It’s to compensate people who’ve been targeted by the Justice Department for, they say personal, political, or ideological reasons,” Comey told CNN’s Jake Tapper. “So, I’m guessing I’ll be in line. I hope I’ll be ahead of those who savagely beat police officers and sacked the Capitol.”

January 6 rioters

The largest group of potential “victims” are the nearly 1,600 people charged in connection with the January 6 insurrection at the US Capitol.

They all already received clemency from Trump, in the form of mass pardons and commutations, which freed hundreds of convicts from prison and ended pending prosecutions. But the new Trump fund delivers on a key goal that many in the January 6 community have clamored for: Restitution.

“This is long overdue,” Box said. “It’s not okay for hardworking, average Americans to be chewed up and destroyed as a collective boogeyman.”

Box was convicted in 2024 on all charges, including felonies, but he wasn’t accused of violence at the Capitol. After Trump granted mass pardons in 2025, the Justice Department dismissed Box’s case, before sentencing.

Box, a college graduate who lives in Georgia, said he worked as a car salesman before January 6 but struggled to find work after the insurrection.

“The car market exploded during Covid,” Box said. “Because of my inability to work in a forward-facing role, I wasn’t able to acquire any of that income. I knew guys who typically made $40,000 a year, and then got $150,000 to $200,000.”

One of the most recognizable faces from January 6 says he isn’t planning on tapping the fund.

Jacob Chansley, better known as the “QAnon Shaman,” told CNN this week he hopes to be compensated through a $40 trillion lawsuit he brought against Trump, alleging all kinds of government conspiracies. A judge dismissed the case last year. But Chansley, who is representing himself, re-filed the longshot case.

Chansley told CNN last year that he had broken with Trump over the president’s handling of the scandal surrounding sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.

Two attorneys who represented members of the Proud Boys and Oath Keepers who were charged and convicted of conspiring to change the 2020 election results told CNN they would look into whether their clients might apply for the funds.

One attorney told CNN their client, a member of the Oath Keepers who infamously moved into the Capitol in a “stack formation” while dressed in camo and paramilitary garb, was “never the same” after the January 6 investigations and cases, struggling to find work and rebuild their life.

2020 fake electors

The pro-Trump “fake electors” from 2020 also stand to benefit from the fund, especially because most of them became entangled in legal cases.

These were 84 Republicans who signed certificates in seven key states like Georgia and Michigan, falsely proclaiming Trump won their state. This was part of a larger plot, overseen by the Trump campaign, to overturn Joe Biden’s victory while Congress certified the results on January 6, 2021.

Democratic prosecutors in Michigan, Georgia, Wisconsin, Arizona and Nevada ended up charging some or all of the fake electors from their states. Most of those cases were ultimately dismissed or were stalled by appeals.

“Reading the announcement was an emotional relief,” Meshawn Maddolck, one of the Republican electors from Michigan, told CNN. “I was debanked. I faced the real possibility of prison time. The trauma to my three kids and the thought of being separated from my grandchildren – it took a lot out of us.”

A judge dropped the charges against Maddock and the other Michigan fake electors last year, due to insufficient evidence of intent to break the law.

But a civil case against the GOP slate is ongoing, and legal fees are piling up. Kevin Kijewski, an attorney for fake elector Clifford Frost, said some of the 16 defendants have spent up to $300,000, and they deserve compensation.

“This commission is a good idea,” Kijewski said. “Cliff paid a price personally, professionally and financially. His realtor business still hasn’t recovered since all this happened. Personal relationships were destroyed. The dismissal of criminal charges doesn’t pay back the legal fees and undo the damage.”

Another Michigan elector, John Haggard, 84, was in the hospital for heart surgery on the day the charges were dropped in September. He attended the court hearing over Zoom, from his hospital bed, connected to machines, Kijewski said. Haggard died hours later.

“This cost him his peace of mind, his money, and to some extent, his life,” Kijewski said.

Other 2020 election deniers

Other prominent 2020 election deniers could qualify for payments.

Lindell, the beleaguered MyPillow CEO, said the fund was Trump’s way of “looking out for these people that were attacked.”

After Trump lost the 2020 election, Lindell was one of the loudest voices promoting false claims about voting machines rigging the results. This led to several defamation lawsuits, including one where Lindell was ordered to pay $2.3 million in damages to an ex-Dominion Voting Systems executive. Lawsuits filed by Dominion and another company, Smartmatic, are ongoing.

Lindell’s pursuit of election conspiracy theories after 2020 also led major retailers to pull his pillows from their shelves, it also prompted scrutiny from law enforcement – in 2022, Lindell’s phone was seized by the FBI.

Former Colorado clerk Tina Peters could also benefit from the new DOJ fund, and her plight even received a shout-out from the Whtie House.

Peters, 70, is in state prison for her role in a criminal conspiracy with some of Lindell’s associates to breach her county’s voting systems in 2021, in hopes of proving that the 2020 election was rigged. But she’ll be released early next month, after receiving a controversial commutation last week from Colorado Gov. Jared Polis, a Democrat, which swiftly drew bipartisan condemnation.

Vice President JD Vance said Tuesday at a press conference that he thinks Peters is an “innocent grandmother” who got a “completely disproportionate” sentence, and therefore, it’s “reasonable for her to get some compensation.”

One of Peters’ lawyers, John Case, told CNN the DOJ fund was “great news” but it’s still unclear how claims will be processed.

Her team has argued for years that she was victimized by overzealous prosecutors and biased judges. Case noted that one of her criminal convictions, in a separate contempt case, was already overturned by an appeals court in 2024.

A state appeals court recently upheld Peters’ felony convictions in the election-breach case. But the panel threw out her sentence and ordered a re-hearing, finding that the trial judge improperly based part of Peters’ punishment on her protected speech promoting 2020 election conspiracies.

To those who oppose clemency and possible compensation for Peters, Case asked, “If a judge said you were going to prison for nine years, because of words you used to criticize the government, would you think that’s fair?”

Pro-Trump news outlets

It’s possible that pro-Trump news outlets that paid millions of dollars in 2020-related legal settlements could now seek reimbursement from the DOJ.

Chris Babcock, a lawyer for OAN, told CNN the company “is seriously considering pursuing rights under this fund and will make a decision shortly about whether to file a claim.”

OAN settled lawsuits with Dominion and Smartmatic for unclosed amounts. The cases stemmed from OAN promoting egregious lies about voting machines flipping millions of ballots from Trump to Biden in 2020.

Spokespeople for Fox News and Newsmax did not answer CNN’s questions about whether they would utilize the DOJ fund.

Fox News paid $787 million to settle a 2020-related defamation lawsuit from Dominion. Newsmax paid about $107 million to settle lawsuits from Dominion and Smartmatic.

The-CNN-Wire
™ & © 2026 Cable News Network, Inc., a Warner Bros. Discovery Company. All rights reserved.