All posts tagged: Jan

Totally unacceptable”: Pence calls slush fund for Jan. 6 rioters “deeply offensive

Totally unacceptable”: Pence calls slush fund for Jan. 6 rioters “deeply offensive

Published by Sam Flores

Former Vice President Mike Pence thinks Donald Trump should “drop” his designs on slush fund created in the president’s recent settlement with the IRS, calling the idea of compensating Jan. 6 rioters “deeply offensive.” Pence shared his take on the Anti-Weaponization Fund during a visit with CBS‘s “Face the Nation” on Sunday. The nearly $1.8 billion fund would compensate people who feel they’ve been unfairly targeted by the Department of Justice. Pence, who was in the U.S. Capitol building as Trump’s supporters stormed it, felt that payouts for pardoned conspiracists was a bridge too far. “I’ll never minimize what happened on January 6. I’ll always believe, by God’s grace, we did our duty that day… the peaceful transfer of power under the Constitution,” he said. “This talk of a weaponization fund, the idea of creating a fund that could compensate people that assaulted police officers and vandalized the Capitol that day is totally unacceptable. My hope is the administration will drop it. Drop the idea entirely.” Pence and Trump have traded barbs publicly since the …

Texas elections; S.C. redistricting; ICE; Jan. 6 : NPR

Texas elections; S.C. redistricting; ICE; Jan. 6 : NPR

Published by Sam Flores

Good morning. You’re reading the Up First newsletter. Subscribe here to get it delivered to your inbox, and listen to the Up First podcast for all the news you need to start your day. Today’s top stories Trump-backed Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton defeated four-term GOP Sen. John Cornyn yesterday to become the Republican nominee for a U.S. Senate seat. Paxton, 63, outpolled 74-year-old Cornyn by a margin of nearly two to one. Both candidates made it to Tuesday’s runoff election after failing to secure a majority in Texas’ primary in March. Republicans spent $100 million for the primary race, making it the most expensive primary in Senate history. Republican Senate nominee Ken Paxton speaks to supporters at a watch party on March 3 in Dallas. Paxton beat incumbent Sen. John Cornyn in a runoff for the nomination, setting up a tough fight in November against Democratic nominee, state Rep. James Talarico. Sergio Flores/Getty Images hide caption toggle caption Sergio Flores/Getty Images 🎧 The election, like many across Texas and the country, was centered around a potential changing of …

Trump DOJ purges info on Jan. 6 riot prosecutions : NPR

Trump DOJ purges info on Jan. 6 riot prosecutions : NPR

Published by Sam Flores

Rioters assault police protecting the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. The Trump administration has systematically tried to rewrite the history of the violent attack, including by purging information from government websites. Joseph Prezioso/AFP via Getty Images hide caption toggle caption Joseph Prezioso/AFP via Getty Images The Trump administration has mass-deleted information about prosecutions tied to the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol, including cases of defendants who assaulted police officers. The removals mark the latest phase of President Trump’s effort to rewrite the history of the violent riot. Justice Department news releases that detailed guilty pleas, jury verdicts and prison sentences abruptly disappeared from government websites last week. On social media, the Justice Department defended the move, saying, “We are proud to reverse the DOJ’s weaponization under the Biden administration. We will do everything in our power to make whole those who were persecuted for political purposes. This includes stripping DOJ’s website of partisan propaganda.” A review by NPR found that the deleted material included information about some of the most serious …

Trump sued by Jan. 6 police officers to block DOJ lawfare fund

Trump sued by Jan. 6 police officers to block DOJ lawfare fund

Published by Sam Flores

Two police officers who defended the U.S. Capitol during the Jan. 6, 2021, riot sued President Donald Trump on Wednesday, seeking to block the new $1.8 billion “lawfare” fund set up by the Department of Justice to compensate Trump allies who claim they were victims of prosecutorial overreach. “In the most brazen act of presidential corruption this century, President Donald J. Trump has created a $1.776 billion taxpayer-funded slush fund to finance the insurrectionists and paramilitary groups that commit violence in his name,” the lawsuit in U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C., says. “The fund, styled the ‘Anti-Weaponization Fund,’ is illegal,” the suit alleges. “No statute authorizes its creation, the settlement on which it is premised is a corrupt sham, and its design violates the Constitution and federal law.” The suit came two days after the DOJ said that Trump had agreed to drop a $10 billion lawsuit against the Internal Revenue Service over the leak of his tax information by an IRS employee in exchange for the creation of the new fund. The two …

DOJ official told GOP ally that big payouts were coming for Jan. 6 defendants

DOJ official told GOP ally that big payouts were coming for Jan. 6 defendants

Published by Sam Flores

Ed Martin has been one of the biggest supporters of Jan. 6 defendants in the Trump administration. The conservative activist called for “die-hard true Americans” to work until their “last breath” to “stop the steal” of the 2020 presidential election in a speech at the Capitol on the eve of Jan. 6, 2021. Martin got to know Trump when he hosted fundraisers for Capitol siege defendants on Trump properties. Martin was then named interim top federal prosecutor in the District of Columbia, where he oversaw the dismissal of hundreds of Jan. 6 cases and the firing or demotions of dozens of prosecutors who worked on the case. It was his support for the “J6ers” that cost him the backing of Sen. Thom Tillis, R-N.C., who blocked Martin’s confirmation to hold the post permanently. He told a conservative podcaster that Tillis asked him if he favored “reparations” for Jan. 6 rioters. “We should do it, we shouldn’t be afraid,” Martin said in the May 2025 interview. “You’re damn right I want to pay J6ers. If you …

Trump DOJ fund might pay Jan. 6 defendants, Blanche says

Trump DOJ fund might pay Jan. 6 defendants, Blanche says

Published by Sam Flores

Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche on Tuesday would not rule out allowing people convicted of assaulting police officers during the Jan. 6, 2021 Capitol riot to seek payments from a new Department of Justice fund created to compensate people who claim they were politically targeted by the Biden administration. Pressed at a Senate appropriations subcommittee hearing, Blanche said, “anybody in this country can apply” to a new $1.8 billion “Anti-Weaponization Fund” and said a commission would decide the rules for who can receive compensation. “The commission will set the rules,” Blanche said when asked whether members of the Proud Boys, Oath Keepers or others convicted of attacking Capitol Police officers could receive payments. “That’s not for me to set. That’s for the commissioners.” Vice President JD Vance later Tuesday also declined to say that Jan. 6 defendants would be barred from receiving payments from the fund. “I’m not committing to giving anybody money or committing to giving no one money,” Vance said in a White House press briefing after the hearing. Vance said the administration …

“Highway robbery”: Dems accuse Trump of creating .7 billion “slush fund” for Jan. 6 defendants

“Highway robbery”: Dems accuse Trump of creating $1.7 billion “slush fund” for Jan. 6 defendants

Published by Sam Flores

The Department of Justice announced a $1.7 billion fund to compensate people who believe they were unfairly targeted by previous Democratic administrations on Monday. While the DOJ shared that there were  “no partisan requirements” to file a claim, the “Anti-Weaponization Fund” is seen by critics as a way for Jan. 6 defendants and allies of the Trump administration to seek compensation. The fund is part of a settlement agreement in President Donald Trump‘s $10 billion lawsuit against the IRS. In exchange for the creation of the fund, Trump and his organization have agreed to drop the lawsuit, as well as claims related to the raid of Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort. “The machinery of government should never be weaponized against any American, and it is this Department’s intention to make right the wrongs that were previously done while ensuring this never happens again,” Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche shared in a statement. “As part of this settlement, we are setting up a lawful process for victims of lawfare and weaponization to be heard and seek redress.” Democratic …

Contributor: Freed by Trump, the Jan. 6 criminals are preying on children and others

Contributor: Freed by Trump, the Jan. 6 criminals are preying on children and others

Published by Sam Flores

If there’s a defining characteristic of President Trump’s second term, it’s the tendency to treat big, irreversible decisions like impulse buys at a Ralphs checkout counter. You can see this dynamic everywhere, from the Iran war to the bulldozing of the East Wing of the White House. The pattern is familiar by now: Trump moves fast, breaks things and frames prudential caution as weakness. And then? Someone else has to clean up the rubble. Which brings us to Jan. 6, which — believe it or not — is suddenly relevant again. After we moved past the initial outrage of the riot in 2021, the American public ultimately looked at the wreckage in the Capitol rotunda and, “Well, at least he’s better than Biden.” Trump (amazingly) returned to office four years later — and promptly issued pardons to the rioters who had rallied to his cause. Even worse, he did it in just the way you’d expect from Trump: indiscriminately. There was no careful review of individual cases, no sober exercise of executive judgment, no attempt …

Jan Morris, and the struggle between coherence and uncovering another’s inner life

Jan Morris, and the struggle between coherence and uncovering another’s inner life

Published by Jenni Sidey

Excerpted from Jan Morris: A Life by Sara Wheeler. Published by Harper. Copyright © 2026. All rights reserved. “I think it could be claimed,” Morris wrote in a late unpublished fragment, “that during the second half of the twentieth century I wrote about more places than anyone else, and I was in a position to witness, and to reflect in my writing, many of the great historical events of the time. As I experienced all this first as a man, then as a woman, it might also be said (although I wouldn’t want to make much of this) that my viewpoint was unique.” The contradictions and anomalies that kept on coming only made her life more alluring. She preached the virtues of kindness, but after she died her daughter revealed unspeakable parental cruelty; she was a famous chronicler of the British Empire (some say an apologist for it) and a card-carrying Welsh nationalist. She was singular and contrary, yet I began to discern — and this surprised me — that her life reveals much that …

DOJ pushes to vacate Proud Boys’ and Oath Keepers’ Jan. 6 convictions

DOJ pushes to vacate Proud Boys’ and Oath Keepers’ Jan. 6 convictions

Published by Sam Flores

The Department of Justice moved Tuesday to vacate the convictions of 12 leading Proud Boys and Oath Keepers who were found guilty of crimes committed during the Jan. 6 Capitol riot. President Donald Trump commuted the sentences of the 12 rioters on the first day of his second term. However, they did not receive unconditional pardons like the nearly 1500 others convicted in connection with the Capitol attacks. Trump did not explicitly explain why these rioters’ were not granted a full pardon, but the gravity of their convictions was a likely consideration. As the leaders of their far-right respective extremist groups, these defendants received much heftier sentences. Oath Keepers founder Stewart Rhodes was originally sentenced to 18 years in prison. This conviction is the basis of the Proud Boys and Oath Keepers appeals. Just days before the defendants’ deadline to file their opening brief with the federal appeals court, the DOJ filed the motion to vacate the convictions altogether. “The United States has determined in its prosecutorial discretion that dismissal of this criminal case is …