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Government

May 26, 2026

Trump to taxpayers: You owe Jan. 6 rioters $1.776B

Trump's Justice Department quietly handed his convicted allies--including Jan. 6 insurrectionists--a $1.776 billion taxpayer-funded payday, with no transparency and no accountability.

William Rothbard

Email: Rothbard@FTCAdLaw.com

William Rothbard also represents clients in federal and state deceptive advertising investigations and enforcement actions as well as consumer class actions and has litigated and settled scores of matters. He provides advertising-related transactional services, including contracts, trademarks, sweepstakes and contests. Bill writes and speaks often on advertising and marketing law topics. He has served as the Editor of Competition, an antitrust and trade regulation journal published by the California State Bar Antitrust and Trade Regulation Section, and is the author of the legal blog, FTCAdLaw Alert, which can be found on his firm website. He has served as an advertising law expert in FTC-related cases and serves as an expert within his field in the global expert consulting network of the Gerson Lehrman Group (GLG). Prior to entering private practice, Bill was an attorney with the FTC, holding positions as an advertising enforcement attorney, Deputy Assistant Director of the Bureau of Consumer Protection, and Attorney-Advisor to the FTC Chairman. He also served as Counsel to the United States Senate Judiciary Committee, Subcommittee on Antitrust, Monopolies and Business Rights. He is a graduate of UC Law San Francisco (formerly UC Hastings College of Law) and The University of Michigan. In his civic life, Bill is a past Chair of the Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy, past President of Americans for Nonsmokers' Rights, former Board Member of Bet Tzedek Legal Services, and a former candidate for the California Assembly.

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Trump to taxpayers: You owe Jan. 6 rioters $1.776B
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More than 1,500 people were charged in connection with the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol, with nearly 1,300 convicted or pleading guilty to various offenses, including seditious conspiracy. Several associates of Donald Trump, including former campaign and administration officials, were also prosecuted in unrelated matters. These include Paul Manafort, convicted of tax and financial fraud; Michael Flynn, who pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI; Roger Stone, convicted of offenses...

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