The Justice Department has removed press releases from its website detailing charges against hundreds of people who participated in the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol riot, the department confirmed Friday.
“There is nothing ‘silent’ about this,” the DOJ’s Rapid Response X account said. in a message in response to allegations that the Justice Department deleted press releases relating to January 6.
“We are proud to have reversed the militarization of the DOJ under the Biden administration,” the message continued. “We will do everything in our power to free those who have been persecuted for political purposes. This includes removing partisan propaganda from the DOJ website.”
A review by NBC News found that the vast majority of press releases regarding the Jan. 6 defendants were removed from the DOJ website as of Friday evening.
The decision to erase hundreds of press releases from the government’s official website is the latest attempt by the Trump administration. reframe the siege of January 6 and to portray the rioters who participated in it as victims.
On his first day back in office, President Donald Trump the masses pardoned the rioters. Shortly thereafter, Justice Department officials and FBI agents who were involved in the January 6 investigation and prosecution were dismissed.
And this week, the Justice Department announced an “anti-armament” fund of 1.8 billion dollars aimed to compensate those who “suffered militarization and war”.
After Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche did not rule out that the Jan. 6 rioters could be paid from the fund, outrage grew among both Democrats and Republicans in Congress.
Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., wrote Wednesday that “the idea of the federal government handing out compensation to rioters” was “absurd and offensive” in a letter to Blanche. Sen. Thom Tillis, R-N.C., on Thursday called the fund a “pay pool for punks.”
Lawmakers aren’t the only ones fighting the fund.
Prosecutor fired Jan. 6, law professor acquitted in federal case brought by Trump administration filed a complaint on Friday, arguing that the fund creates a politically discriminatory process that excludes some people who say they have been mistreated by Republican officials.
Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, a watchdog organization in Washington, D.C., also filed suit Friday, calling the fund a “stunning act of presidential corruption.” He argued that the fund had not been approved by Congress, unlike previous funds intended to compensate victims.
And on Wednesday, two officers who protected the Capitol on January 6 filed a separate complaintalleging that the fund would “directly finance the violent operations of rioters, paramilitaries and their supporters.”
The lawsuits come after Ed Martin, who was fired as head of the Justice Department’s “armament” task force earlier this year, predicted that the Justice Department would give millions of dollars to those accused of their actions on January 6.