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Judge asks why Capitol riot damage restitution is $1.5 million when cost to taxpayers is $500M

10 August 2021
Dan Ackermann

A federal judge asked prosecutors Monday to explain why restitution in Capitol riot cases was limited to $1.5 million for repairs to the building when the total cost to taxpayers was "half a billion," per Politico.

Of note: D.C. Chief U.S. District Judge Beryl Howell's comments come some two weeks after she questioned whether it's appropriate for prosecutors to offer defendants misdemeanor plea deals in cases that saw insurrectionists "terrorizing members of Congress."

Driving the news: Howell made the costing comments during the plea hearing of Glenn Wes Lee Croy, 46 of Colorado Springs, Colo., who "pleaded guilty to parading, demonstrating or picketing in a capitol building" after attending a pro-Trump rally, according to KUSA.

What they're saying: Howell questioned why the U.S. attorney’s office was looking to "require only $2,000 in each felony case and $500 in each misdemeanor case," the Washington Post notes.

  • "I'm accustomed to the government being fairly aggressive in terms of fraud when there have been damages that accrue from a criminal act for the restitution amount," she said, according to WashPost.
  • "Where we have Congress acting, appropriating all this money due directly to the events of January 6th, I have found the damage amount of less than $1.5 million — when all of us American taxpayers are about to foot the bill for close to half a billion dollars — a little bit surprising."
  • Prosecutor Clayton O'Connor told the judge he'd be "happy to" get her the answer to her costings question, Politico reports.

Context: Congress last month passed a $2.1 billion Capitol security bill to help cover the costs incurred during the deadly insurrection.

  • This included $70.7 million for the Capitol Police response to the attack and $521 million to reimburse the National Guard for deploying guards to help with security efforts on Jan. 6 and after.

Background: Prosecutors announced riot damage estimate of "approximately $1,495,326.55" in June. While it was unclear how it arrived at this figure, it seems to be related to damages such as broken windows, per WashPost.

  • A spokesperson for the Architect of the Capitol said the agency "gave damage assessments to the Justice Department, which calculated the per-case penalty, and separate assessments to House and Senate appropriators for wider security costs," the outlet reports.
  • The U.S. Attorney's Office has declined to comment on Howell's latest remarks beyond what was said in court.

Transcripts show George Floyd told police "I can't breathe" over 20 times

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Newly released transcripts of bodycam footage from the Minneapolis Police Department show that George Floyd told officers he could not breathe more than 20 times in the moments leading up to his death.

Why it matters: Floyd's killing sparked a national wave of Black Lives Matter protests and an ongoing reckoning over systemic racism in the United States. The transcripts "offer one the most thorough and dramatic accounts" before Floyd's death, The New York Times writes.

The state of play: The transcripts were released as former officer Thomas Lane seeks to have the charges that he aided in Floyd's death thrown out in court, per the Times. He is one of four officers who have been charged.

  • The filings also include a 60-page transcript of an interview with Lane. He said he "felt maybe that something was going on" when asked if he believed that Floyd was having a medical emergency at the time.

What the transcripts say:

  • Floyd told the officers he was claustrophobic as they tried to get him into the squad car.
  • The transcripts also show Floyd saying, "Momma, I love you. Tell my kids I love them. I'm dead."
  • Former officer Derek Chauvin, who had his knee on Floyd's neck for over eight minutes, told Floyd, "Then stop talking, stop yelling, it takes a heck of a lot of oxygen to talk."

Read the transcripts via DocumentCloud.