The Justice Department has removed press releases detailing the charges against hundreds of individuals who participated in the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol riot from its website, the department confirmed Friday.
A review by NBC News found that the vast majority of press releases pertaining to Jan. 6 defendants have been removed from the DOJ website as of Friday evening. The move comes as the latest attempt by the Trump administration to reframe the Jan. 6 siege and to paint the rioters who participated in it as victims.
“Nothing ‘quiet’ about it,” the DOJ Rapid Response X account said in a post replying to allegations that the Justice Department had deleted press releases related to Jan. 6. “We are proud to reverse the DOJ’s weaponization under the Biden administration,” the post continued. “We will do everything in our power to make whole those who were persecuted for political purposes. This includes stripping DOJ’s website of partisan propaganda.”
On his first day back in office, President Donald Trump mass pardoned the rioters. Soon after, Justice Department officials and FBI agents who were a part of the Jan. 6 investigation and prosecutions were fired. And this week, the Justice Department announced a $1.8 billion “anti-weaponization” fund aimed to compensate those who “suffered weaponization and lawfare.”
After acting Attorney General Todd Blanche did not rule out Jan. 6 rioters’ eligibility to be paid by the fund, outrage swelled from both Democrats and Republicans in Congress. Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., wrote Wednesday that the “notion of the federal government doling out compensation to rioters” was “absurd and offensive,” in a letter to Blanche. Sen. Thom Tillis, R-N.C., called the fund a “payout pot for punks,” on Thursday.
Lawmakers aren’t the only ones who are fighting back against the fund. A fired Jan. 6 prosecutor and a law professor acquitted in a federal case brought by the Trump administration filed a lawsuit Friday, arguing that the fund creates a politically discriminatory process that excludes certain individuals who say they were mistreated by Republican officials.
Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, a watchdog organization in D.C., also filed suit Friday, calling the fund “a jaw-dropping act of presidential corruption.” It argued the fund wasn’t approved by Congress, unlike prior funds that were aimed to compensate victims.
And Wednesday, two officers who protected the Capitol on Jan. 6 filed a separate suit, alleging that the fund would “directly finance the violent operations of rioters, paramilitaries, and their supporters.” The lawsuits come after Ed Martin, who was removed from his role as head of the Justice Department’s “weaponization” working group earlier this year, predicted that the Justice Department would give millions of dollars to those charged over their actions on Jan. 6.
The deletions mark a significant shift in how the department handles records of the prosecutions that followed the Capitol breach. Hundreds of individuals faced charges ranging from trespassing to assault on law enforcement officers in the wake of the riot that disrupted the certification of the 2020 presidential election results.
Officials have not provided a detailed explanation for the specific timing of the removals beyond the broader statements on the X account. The changes align with other actions taken since President Trump returned to office, including the mass pardons issued on Inauguration Day.
Critics of the deletions argue that removing the press releases erases an official record of the events and the legal proceedings that followed. Supporters maintain that the materials represented partisan efforts that should no longer appear on government websites.
Further legal challenges to the compensation fund are expected in the coming weeks as additional groups review the eligibility criteria and funding mechanism. The Justice Department has not commented on whether additional materials related to Jan. 6 cases will be affected by similar actions.