WASHINGTON — Two pardoned Jan. 6 Capitol riot defendants are entitled to refunds for their restitution payments after a judge who has famously ruled against the Trump administration changed his mind.
US District Judge James Boasberg issued an order on Wednesday in favor of Christopher Price and his wife, Cynthia Ballenger, to allow them to get back $570 apiece they paid after their convictions. It was a change of heart from July when Boasberg initially ruled against the couple.
“The Court denied the motion, and Defendants now ask the Court to reconsider. Having viewed the question afresh, the Court now agrees with Defendants. When a conviction is vacated, the Government must return any payments exacted because of it,” Boasberg wrote in a 12-page memo.
President Trump, along with his GOP allies in Congress, have called for Boasberg’s impeachment for blocking the president’s immigration agenda and for giving Special Jack Smith’s FBI project Arctic Frost a green light to get phone records on GOP senators.
Trump has called Boasberg a “radical left lunatic.”
Price and Ballenger were among the roughly 1,600 defendants Trump pardoned this year for the Jan. 6 Capitol melee.
They entered the Capitol through the Senate Carriage Door, according to federal investigators
“Worth fighting for Trump,” Price allegedly texted to a friend after entering the building and observing broken glass everywhere.
When pressed by investigators about whether they entered the Capitol illegally, Price responded, “hypothetically,” according to court documents.
Boasberg said Trump’s pardon alone isn’t enough for former defendants to get repaid.
But, he contended that the fact that both of their cases were before the US Court of Appeals for the DC Circuit when Trump issued his pardon resulted in their convictions being vacated completely.
“Even if Defendants’ pardon does not entitle them to refunds, the resulting vacatur of their convictions might,” Boasberg explained.
The president’s team has repeatedly butted heads with Boasberg, who had been deeply skeptical of Trump’s invocation of the 17th-century Alien Enemies Act to rapidly round up and target alleged gangbangers for extradition to a notorious El Salvadorian mega-prison complex.
Some GOP lawmakers have floated legislation to impeach Boasberg, accusing him of usurping executive authority and pointing to his handling of the Arctic Frost probe, which looked at efforts to overturn the 2020 election, including by furnishing an alternative slate of electors.
