Amna Nawaz
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WATCH: Hirono asks Attorney General Bondi if she’d support a compensation fund for Jan. 6 rioters
Posted
October 7, 2025
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October 7, 2025
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1:45Now PlayingWhile questioning Attorney General Pam Bondi at a congressional hearing Tuesday, Sen. Mazie Hirono, D-Hawaii, noted there were reports that a lawyer representing Jan. 6 rioters had met with senior Justice Department officials about creating a compensation fund, akin to what Congress had set up for 9/11 victims. The senator Bondi asked if anyone at DOJ is considering this fund for Jan. 6 rioters.
“Senator, I have had no meetings or discussions about a fund,” Bondi said.
Hirono then asked if the attorney general would support such a fund. Bondi told the senator to send her the information on the fund, “and I'd be happy to look at it.”
Earlier this year, President Donald Trump floated the idea of a compensation fund for Jan. 6 rioters, saying in March that “a lot of the people that are in the government now talk about it.” Hirono said in the hearing that Trump has pardoned nearly all of the more than 1,200 rioters who were convicted of charges related to the Jan. 6 insurrection.
Bondi testified for the first time before the Senate Judiciary Committee since her confirmation hearing in January.
The oversight hearing, focused on the Department of Justice, comes on the heels of a number of controversial decisions from the agency. That includes the indictment of former FBI Director James Comey that came days after President Donald Trump directly called on Bondi in a social media post to prosecute Comey and other perceived political foes.
Ahead of Bondi’s testimony, more than 280 former DOJ employees wrote a letter urging Congress for more oversight due to the “degradation” of oaths to the Constitution and to upholding the law under the Trump administration.
“Members in both chambers and on both sides of the aisle must provide a meaningful check on the abuses we’re witnessing,” the letter read.
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