Defendants who assaulted police

Vance won't rule out compensating Jan. 6 defendants who assaulted police

By Kit Maher

Vice President JD Vance declined to rule out compensating those who attacked police officers on January 6, 2021, using a new $1.776 billion settlement fund — though he said it was not the administration’s goal to pay people for assaulting officers.

He said there’d be a process to ensure that only those who were “really mistreated” are compensated.

“We’re not trying to give money to anybody who attacked a police officer. We’re trying to give money — not give money — we’re trying to compensate people where the book was thrown at them, they were mistreated by the legal system,” Vance said.

“We do have people who were accused of attacking law enforcement officers,” he said. “That doesn’t mean that we’re going to completely ignore some of the claims that they’re going to make.”

Pressed by CNN’s Kaitlan Collins about previous comments that anyone who assaulted a police officer on January 6 should go to prison, Vance emphasized that claims would be evaluated on a “case-by-case basis.”

“I don’t rule things out categorically when I know nothing about a person’s individual circumstances,” he said.

“We’re not making commitments to give anybody money, we’re just making commitments to look at things case-by-case,” he added.

President Donald Trump gave sweeping pardons to those charged in connection with January 6, including those who assaulted police.

Vance on Tuesday denied that money would go to the Trump family, using people like election denier Tina Peters as an example of who would be eligible.

“The people that would get the money are people, some of whom have been prosecuted completely disproportionate to any crime they’ve ever committed,” he said.