[Congressional Record Volume 172, Number 128 (Wednesday, August 5, 2026)]
[Senate]
[Page S4450]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                       U.S. Department of Justice

  Mr. SCHUMER. Mr. President, Todd Blanche's Department of Justice 
continues to let criminals off the hook so long as they are loyal to 
Donald Trump. Yesterday, Trump's DOJ forced a judge to throw out the 
charges against eight members of the radical extremist Oath Keepers, 
who were convicted of seditious conspiracy for plotting the January 6 
insurrection--horrendous. Doesn't get any more un-American than this. 
Doesn't twist America's values into a tortured knot.
  Trump already gave the insurrectionists clemency. Now he is wiping 
their records clean, but there is no erasing what the Oath Keepers and 
the rest of the mob did at Trump's command on January 6.
  I saw them in this building. They were not on a tour. They were aimed 
at destruction to maim and even in a few cases murder. We can't afford 
to forget what happened that day.
  Now, Trump has sent the country a clear message: There are no 
consequences for sedition, no punishment for attacking police, no 
repercussions for ransacking the Capitol to steal an election, so long 
as you do it in Trump's name.
  No wonder his numbers are so terrible. No wonder the American people 
are turning against him. No one in our history has done things as bad 
as this.
  Trump won't just give you clemency for committing a crime on his 
behalf; he will give you a reward. The whole purpose of Trump's $2 
billion MAGA slush fund is to funnel taxpayer dollars to the Oath 
Keepers and other Trump cronies. Just the other day, Trump himself 
defended his slush fund describing it ``a reimbursement for the pain 
that [January 6th insurrectionists] suffered.''
  Donald, what pain have these insurrectionists suffered? You let them 
off scot-free.
  Republicans don't get to yap about being the party of law and order 
when they are handing out pardons and cash rewards like candy to 
convicted cop beaters--convicted cop beaters. Do Senate Republicans 
want to give a promotion to Blanche, the same guy who came up with the 
idea of these reparations for rioters?
  There is still no legal guardrail stopping Trump and Blanche from 
giving payouts to January 6 insurrectionists at the taxpayers' expense. 
That is unacceptable. The only thing these criminals deserve is a cold 
cell, not American's hard-earned taxpayer dollars.