The Trump administration’s newly created $1.776 billion “Anti-Weaponization Fund”, sold to the public as a mechanism to compensate those allegedly persecuted by the Biden-era Justice Department, has attracted its first claimants. Their records make instructive reading.

Among those seeking a share of taxpayer money are convicted Capitol rioters now emboldened by Trump’s blanket pardons of January 2025.

Smoked dope

Brandon Fellows, of Schenectady, New York, is demanding $30 million.

The DOJ accused Fellows of entering the Capitol through a broken window and walking through the Senate wing door carrying a “Trump 2020” flag.

Once inside, he stood on broken furniture and briefly entered a congressional conference room before crossing the hall to the private office of a US senator, where he smoked marijuana.

Fellows was convicted of one felony count of obstructing the joint session of Congress and four misdemeanours, and sentenced to 42 months in prison.

Beautiful day

At trial, representing himself, he told jurors that January 6 had been “a beautiful day” and that he liked “the fact that those senators and congressmen were in fear for their lives.” He described the presiding judge as a Nazi.

Then there is Rachel Powell, known online as “Bullhorn Lady” and “Pink Hat Lady.” Prosecutors identified Powell as one of the first rioters to break through onto Capitol grounds.

She used an ice axe and a battering ram to smash a window, then used a bullhorn to instruct the mob on how to “take” the building.

Found guilty on nine counts, three felonies and six misdemeanours, she was sentenced to 57 months in prison and 36 months of supervised release.

Troubling claimant

Pardoned on Trump’s first day back in office after serving just over a year, Powell now says she cannot put a price on what she went through.

Perhaps the most troubling claimant to have emerged so far is Jake Lang. Federal authorities charged him with 11 criminal offences, including civil disorder, obstruction of an official proceeding, and assaulting law enforcement officers.

Prosecutors alleged he attacked police officers using a baseball bat and a riot shield during the breach of the Capitol. He spent four years in jail awaiting trial but was never convicted, receiving a presidential pardon in January 2025.

White power activist

Since his release he has become a white power, anti-immigrant, antisemitic and anti-Muslim activist and provocateur, recorded on video using racist slurs and giving a Nazi salute. He has since threatened a Capitol Police commander with public execution.

Lang confirmed he intends to apply for compensation, predicting that misdemeanour cases should receive “several hundred thousand dollars,” with cases like his “looking at upwards of a million dollars.”

Convicted rioter Dominic Box, who spent eighteen months in pre-trial detention before being pardoned, says he now cannot find work and is also eyeing the fund.

Longest jail term

The Proud Boys dimension takes the story to a different level entirely.

Enrique Tarrio, the organisation’s former chairman, was convicted of seditious conspiracy for directing the January 6 assault and originally sentenced to 22 years in prison, the longest term handed down to any defendant in the entire prosecution.

Pardoned by Trump on his first day back in office, Tarrio has since said he expects to receive between two and five million dollars in taxpayer money.

Tarrio and four fellow convicted Proud |Boy leaders, Ethan Nordean, sentenced to 18 years; Joseph Biggs, 17 years; Zachary Rehl, 15 years; and Dominic Pezzola, 10 years, had already filed a separate $100 million civil lawsuit against the federal government in June 2025, alleging their prosecutions had been politically motivated.

All four were convicted of seditious conspiracy. Pezzola was the rioter filmed using a stolen police shield to bash in a Capitol window.

Seditious conspiracy

Tarrio now indicates the lawsuit may be dropped in favour of claims through the fund. Their combined sentences, before pardoning, amounted to 82 years.

Lawyers representing Proud Boys and Oath Keepers members have said they are actively exploring fund applications on behalf of their clients.

One described an unnamed Oath Keeper, who had entered the Capitol in military “stack formation” dressed in paramilitary gear, as having been “never the same” since his conviction.

Taxpayer funds

And the queue stretches far beyond these named individuals. Nearly 400 people pardoned or granted clemency for their January 6 involvement are now seeking millions in taxpayer funds, with most claimants seeking between one and ten million dollars apiece.

The acting attorney general has declined to rule out payments even to those convicted of assaulting Capitol Police officers, telling a Senate hearing simply that “anybody can apply.”

Meanwhile, two officers who defended the Capitol that day have filed a federal lawsuit arguing the fund is both illegal and dangerous. The commission that will decide who receives what has not yet been appointed. Trump can dismiss its members at will.