A federal judge on Wednesday ordered the government to refund restitution payments made and fines incurred by a Maryland couple after an appeals court tossed their convictions related to Jan. 6, 2021.
Chief Judge James Boasberg of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia had previously denied in June Cynthia Ballenger and Christopher Price’s motion to recoup roughly $1,000 in payments. Ballenger and her husband initially sought to regain $570 each in March, after they were among a slew of Jan. 6 defendants who received pardons from President Donald Trump.
This week, Boasberg reversed his position, citing the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals’ recent move to vacate the couple’s misdemeanor convictions.
“In plain English, vacatur — unlike a pardon — ‘wholly nullifie[s]’ the vacated order and ‘wipes the slate clean,’” Boasberg wrote in a new memo order. “Having viewed the question afresh, the Court now agrees with defendants.”
In the case of Ballenger and Price, the couple was pardoned by Trump in January, as the appeal they made challenging their convictions was still pending in a higher court. Because the appeals were mooted by the pardons, the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals vacated the convictions entirely, leading Boasburg to reason that the financial penalties the couple had already paid under previous judgments should be refunded.
“Even if defendants’ pardon does not entitle them to refunds, the resulting vacatur of their convictions might,” Boasberg wrote.
“Because the court could order defendants to pay assessments and restitution, it can order those payments reversed,” he added. “When a conviction is vacated, the government must return any payments exacted because of it.”
The Washington, D.C. judge is the same official who has attracted sweeping criticism from GOP lawmakers in Congress for other cases related to the Trump administration. A group of Republicans is now calling for his impeachment, due partly to revelations that the judge signed off on subpoenas ordering phone companies to hand over the records and personal data of multiple sitting conservative lawmakers to the government.
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“We now know that Judge Boasberg signed the gag orders for Members of Congress without evidentiary support….this legal slander by Judge Boasberg will not be ignored,” Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) wrote in a post to X on Wednesday.
“There must be consequences for these blatant abuses of legal process,” he added.