In U.S. District Court inWashington, D.C., today, Chief Judge Beryl Howell asked Justice Department lawyers a very reasonable question on behalf of taxpayers:
“'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,' said Howell, a former Brooklyn federal prosecutor and Senate Judiciary Committee general counsel.
'Where we have Congress acting, appropriating all this money due directly to the events of January 6, 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,' she said.
The judge alluded to a $2.1 billion security bill passed overwhelmingly July 29 by Congress to cover the costs of the Jan. 6 attack, including reimbursements totaling $521 million for the National Guard and $70 million to the Capitol Police, plus $300 million for Capitol security improvements." (our emphasis)
The Justice Department lawyer responded that they would provide Judge Howell how DOJ calculated the damages owed by the rioters in October. We think they dropped a few zeros.
With all due respect to Attorney General Merrick Garland, the tone he's set up to now at DOJ isn't what we'd call forcefully righteous, say compared to former AG Eric Holder. We get that he wants to contrast his demeanor and operations with that of the previous thuggish Administration, but more stringent fines and restitution from the violent seditionists that stormed the Capitol just might discourage some of them if and when there's a next time.
(photo: Judge Howell. Stephen Boitano/AP)
