A pardon for Miami’s former Proud Boy isn’t enough. Now he wants a check | Opinion

A $1.776 billion “anti-weaponization” fund announced by the Trump administration to pay people who say they were wrongly investigated or prosecuted by the government has rightly been called little more than a slush fund.

It’s an idea that has faced widespread bipartisan condemnation, with Republicans as some of the fiercest critics. North Carolina Republican Sen. Thom Tillis, for example, called the anti-weaponization fund, “stupid on stilts” and a “payout for punks.”

But the knowledge that Enrique Tarrio, the former Proud Boy leader from Miami, is looking for a payout from the fund makes the whole thing even worse, if that’s possible.

Tarrio was convicted of seditious conspiracy for his role in planning the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol. He was sentenced to 22 years in prison but was pardoned by President Trump — along with about 1,600 other people — after he served three years.

The pardon wasn’t enough for Tarrio. Now he wants money. In an interview with CBS News Miami, Tarrio said, “Look, people don’t have to like me, but to say that I got 22 years, correctly, is wrong. I was targeted, and I do believe that this fund does apply to me.”

How much does he think he should get? As he told PBS News, he believes he’s entitled to “somewhere in the mid-tens of millions.”

Remember, this is the guy who wrote, “Make no mistake. We did this,” on social media during the deadly riot, which was an effort to overturn the results of a legitimate election. Prosecutors said he was “a general rather than a soldier” when a violent mob stormed our seat of government and attacked police officers.

We remember him in Miami long before Jan. 6 as an extremist with a bullhorn and a black shirt. And then there was that time in 2018 when he was with a GOP mob screaming expletives and pounding on the door of the Miami campaign headquarters for then-congressional candidate Donna Shalala while House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi was visiting.

Neither Tarrio nor other Jan. 6 defendants — many of whom are from Florida — should receive a dime in payout, let alone one at taxpayers’ expense. Attacking the Capitol and assaulting police officers should not be rewarded — it must be condemned.

The fund itself shouldn’t even exist — it’s part of an agreement between the U.S. Justice Department, the IRS and Trump to settle Trump’s lawsuit against the IRS over the leak of his and the Trump Organization’s tax returns and other claims. Trump settling with the government is, at this point in our endangered democracy, the equivalent of settling with himself — and then taking almost $2 billion from the Treasury for a fund to pay off his supporters.

The idea that this is about pushing back on weaponization of the government is rich. This is an administration that specializes in just that, launching “investigations” into political adversaries of the president — former FBI Director James Comey and advice columnist E. Jean Carroll, who accused Trump of sexual assault and successfully sued him, among them. Now Trump’s going even further, unilaterally creating a billion-dollar fund of taxpayer money to compensate political allies. Executive overreach and abuse of power, anyone?

In a rare bipartisan move, GOP Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick from Pennsylvania joined Democratic Rep. Tom Suozzi from New York last week in an effort to stop creation of the fund, introducing the Bipartisan Transparency for American Taxpayers Act, which would prohibit using federal dollars to pay claims submitted to the Anti-Weaponization Fund.

Florida Republican and gubernatorial candidate Rep. Byron Donalds — who supports the fund — has questioned the process. “I think Congress should have a say in the outcomes with this fund,” he said, according to Politico.

Maybe everyone needs a reminder of what happened on Jan. 6. Roughly 140 police officers were injured. Members of Congress and their staff barricaded themselves in their offices while the certification process for the presidential election — which Joe Biden won — was halted. Insurrectionists smashed windows and marched through the halls of Congress.

Actions should have consequences regardless of who occupies the Oval Office. Taxpayers shouldn’t be required to bankroll Tarrio’s grievances. Paying Jan. 6 defendants sends the message that attacks on democratic institutions and political violence are rewarded with financial compensation. That’s a dangerous precedent, even by Trump’s standards.