Two police officers who defended the United States Capitol on January 6, 2021, are suing the Trump administration in an attempt to block a new $1.8 billion Justice Department compensation fund designed to provide relief to Americans the administration says were targeted by politically motivated Biden-era prosecutions.
Former Capitol Police officer Harry Dunn and Metropolitan Police officer Daniel Hodges filed suit this week against President Donald Trump, Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche, and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, claiming the administration lacks the authority to establish what critics have labeled an “anti-weaponization” fund without congressional approval.
The lawsuit argues the fund could ultimately compensate some January 6 defendants and members of “paramilitary groups,” with the officers <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2026/05/20/us/politics/jan-6-officers-lawsuit-trump-fund.html">warning</a> it could embolden political violence.
 “In the most brazen act of presidential corruption this century, President Donald J Trump has created a $1.776bn taxpayer-funded slush fund to finance the insurrectionists and paramilitary groups that commit violence in his name,” the complaint states.
The Trump administration, however, has framed the program very differently — not as a reward system for rioters, but as a mechanism to compensate Americans who faced politically selective prosecutions and excessive legal punishment under the Biden administration.
Vice President JD Vance defended the program during a White House press briefing on Tuesday, accusing the media of distorting the fund&#8217;s purpose. 
“This is about compensating Americans for the lawfare that we saw under the last administration,” Vance said. “Anybody can apply for it. Republicans can apply for it, Democrats can apply for it.”
Vance also rejected claims that the fund would personally benefit Trump or his family. 
“Is $1 of this money going to the Trump administration? No. Is $1 of this money going to Donald Trump personally? No,” he said.
When pressed on whether individuals convicted in connection with January 6 could potentially receive compensation, Vance said the administration would review claims individually rather than issue blanket exclusions. 
“We’re not trying to give money to anybody who attacked a police officer,” Vance said. “We’re trying to compensate people where the book was thrown at them, they were mistreated by the legal system.”
The vice president argued the fund is part of a broader effort to “turn the page” on what the administration views as politically motivated prosecutions during the Biden years. 
“Let’s not prosecute people because they said the wrong thing, or because they had the wrong political candidate, or because they had the wrong viewpoint,” Vance said.
Critics of the program point to the more than 1,500 pardons and commutations Trump issued for January 6 defendants earlier this year, arguing the compensation fund could become another avenue for rewarding political allies. 
Supporters of the initiative, however, argue that many defendants faced disproportionate charges, financial ruin, and years-long legal battles tied to what they view as prosecutions they believe were politically driven.
The lawsuit comes as the administration continues to make anti-weaponization and transparency efforts a central political theme heading into the 2026 midterms.

January 6

J6 Officers Sue Trump Over $1.8B ‘Anti-Weaponization’ Fund

Capitol Police

Capitol Riot

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President Donald Trump has agreed to <a href="https://www.justice.gov/opa/media/1441086/dl?utm_medium=email&amp;utm_source=govdelivery">dismiss</a> his $10 billion lawsuit against the IRS in exchange for a formal apology and the creation of a new $1.776 billion Anti-Weaponization Fund, a Justice Department program designed to compensate Americans who say they were unfairly targeted by federal authorities.
According to officials cited in the reporting, the settlement also ends Trump’s related claims involving the 2022 FBI search of Mar-a-Lago and the Russia-collusion investigation.  The administration is presenting the fund as a broader remedy for what Trump and his allies describe as government “weaponization.”
A senior official said the program is open to anyone who believes they were unfairly targeted by any administration, not just Republicans or Trump supporters. That could include people charged in connection with the events of January 6, 2021, at the Capitol and even Hunter Biden, whose legal troubles and expenses have been widely publicized.
An official said the purpose is not to enrich claimants indiscriminately, but to compensate people for tangible losses such as legal fees and other costs tied to what they experienced. The official described the goal as restoring dignity and helping people recover some of what they lost. The settlement does not guarantee payment to Trump, his sons, or the Trump Organization; instead, they are expected to receive a formal apology, while any compensation claims would be evaluated separately.
The program will be overseen by five board members appointed by Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche, with one additional member selected in consultation with congressional leaders. The president may remove board members without cause.
The board will have the authority to issue apologies, request more information, and recommend monetary relief.
<a href="https://nypost.com/2026/05/18/us-news/trump-drops-irs-suit-in-exchange-for-apology-1-776b-fund-for-victims-of-government-weaponization-and-even-hunter-biden-can-ask-for-award/">Supporters of the settlement</a> argue that the agreement reflects Trump’s long-running promise to end government abuse and politically motivated prosecutions. Trump made that case during his second inaugural address, saying the power of the state should never again be used to persecute political opponents.
A spokesman for Trump’s legal team said the president entered the settlement “squarely for the benefit of the American people,” while continuing his fight to hold accountable those who wronged Americans.
The DOJ has argued that the fund fits within existing legal authority for settlement payments, pointing to the Judgment Fund and prior claims processes as precedent. The administration says the new structure is intended to create a formal, flexible mechanism for reviewing claims from across the political spectrum.

US-ISRAEL-IRAN-WAR-POLITICS-TRUMP

Trump Establishes $1.776B Fund To Combat Deep State ‘Weaponization’

Donald Trump

This piece is part of MI x DW, a collaboration that brings Daily Wire readers exclusive commentary and research from the Manhattan Institute’s world-class team of scholars.
***
Earlier this week, the New York Times editorial board <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2026/03/31/opinion/trump-jan-6-pardons-crimes-recidivism.html">declared</a> with great alarm that “The People Trump Pardoned Are on a Crime Spree.” President Donald Trump has issued many pardons and grants of clemency, as have his predecessors. The worst of these decisions, says the board, was Trump’s grant of “clemency on the first day of his second term to everyone who stormed the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.” That clemency was extended to approximately 1,500 participants in the infamous riot universally known by the date on which it occurred: January 6. Whether it was wise to issue a mass clemency to the rioters is a debatable proposition, but whether those rioters have since gone on a crime spree is an empirical question with a clear answer: Not even close.
The Times’ editorial tells readers that the results of the clemency “have been disastrous.” Big, if true! But the claim doesn’t hold up under even modest scrutiny. Here is what the board considers damning evidence: “At least 12 of the pardoned rioters have since been charged with other serious crimes, including child molestation, assault, harassment, murder plots and charges related to a vicious dog attack.”
Twelve, you say!?
“Disastrous” is about as dishonest a characterization for a recidivism rate of less than 1% as one can imagine. For context, national data show that more than 80% of released state prisoners — most of whom are released (typically after less than two years) onto parole after serving an average of about 44% of their maximum sentence, despite having around 10 prior arrests and five prior convictions — in America are rearrested for a new crime. On average, state prison releasees will generate five new rearrests over a 10-year period. Now, who would bet on the Times running an editorial decrying the practice of early parole, or calling for longer sentences? I certainly wouldn’t.
In fact, the same editorial board has a long history of dedicating page space to those pushing a decades-long effort to decarcerate and de-police. Over the years, the Times has said very little about the recidivism issue, but has had plenty to say in supporting efforts to be more lenient with offenders and tougher on police. That long record of both implicit and explicit support for criminal justice and police reforms that enabled a significant amount of reoffending — exactly the kind the Times now criticizes — makes this week’s editorial impossible to take seriously, especially the part calling for an electoral referendum on public safety.
Where were those calls when Democrats across the country were defunding their local police departments, pushing to release more and more repeat criminal offenders, and breathlessly celebrating prosecutors who ran on diverting as many criminal offenders as they felt they could politically get away with releasing?
The question is, of course, rhetorical. No one actually believes that the New York Times’s editorial board has suddenly connected with its inner carceralist. The editorial is transparently cynical and flagrantly hypocritical.
Republicans have traditionally held an advantage over Democrats in public opinion regarding which party is more effective on public safety. President Trump has made “law and order” a central theme of his presidency. Less than two weeks ago, he presided over a roundtable discussion on crime in Memphis, TN, where his administration deployed a U.S. Marshals-led task force comprising federal law enforcement agencies, local police, and the National Guard. The administration has been <a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/releases/2026/03/president-trumps-memphis-safe-task-force-delivers-crushing-blow-to-crime/">enthusiastically touting</a> the success of the task force, to which it has attributed a steep decline in crime in what has long been one of America’s most dangerous cities.
Facilitating a 1,500-person crime spree would constitute a major political liability for any president — but it would be an especially bad look for this president. But the New York Times is grasping at straws here, and if it wants the public to take its newfound concern for the problem of repeat offending seriously, it should consider speaking up about any one of the countless examples of that problem plaguing Democrat-run cities across America.
***
Rafael A. Mangual is the Nick Ohnell fellow at the Manhattan Institute for Policy Research, a contributing editor of City Journal, and author of the 2022 book, Criminal (In)Justice.

Sign at the entrance to the New York Times Headquarters in

The New York Times Finally Discovers That Criminals Commit Crime

Crime stats

Criminal Justice

New York Times

public safety

Students in New Mexico will learn more about the January 6 Capitol riot and climate change than the moon landing.
New Mexico high school <a href="https://defendinged.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/High-School-United-States-History.docx.pdf">history guidelines</a> contain over a dozen references to the January 6 riot while only mentioning the moon landing once. The guidelines, part of the New Mexico Instructional Scope for History, are largely focused on racial and gender grievances and encourage teachers to promote Democratic politicians and lament how the richest men in the United States today are “mostly white.&#8221;
“The freedom of those in America and Ukraine after the 2021 Capital [sic] Insurrection and Russian invasion of Ukraine are two events that reveal the rights and safety of women, immigrants, children, and the LGBTQ community are at risk,” an example discussion in the guidance reads. 
Teachers are also instructed to show footage from NBC showing “Americans armed with weapons and military-type gear storming the Capital, breaking glass, defacing sacred art, political statues and podiums on and in our Capital [sic] building in Washington, DC.”
The purpose of the footage is to “disprove some of the beliefs that it was not violent or a threat to our democracy.”
The repeated misspelling of &#8220;Capitol&#8221; in the January 6 section is one of several errors in the guidelines. In another section, teachers are encouraged to list Democratic politicians from racial and sexual minorities, including &#8220;VP [Kamala] Harris, Transportation Secretary [Pete] Buttigieg, Interior Secretary [Deb] Haaland and Supreme Court Justice Brown.&#8221;
The last example appears to be a reference to Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson.
Rhyen Staley, the director of research at Defending Education, said the documents were an example of politics being pushed in the classroom.
“These state level documents expose a troubling pattern by education activists of pushing leftwing political and social biases into K-12 classrooms as established ‘facts,'&#8221; Staley told The Daily Wire. &#8220;Students and families deserve an education that values a politically neutral approach to weighing different sides of issues, not political indoctrination.&#8221;
The <a href="https://web.ped.nm.gov/bureaus/curriculum-instruction/new-mexico-instructional-scope-nmis/">New Mexico Instructional Scope</a> is an “educator influenced tool designed to provide guidance and support to assure that all students in New Mexico have access to content at their grade level combined with the use of impactful instructional strategies.”
The history guidelines reveal a heavy focus on left-wing activism and grievance politics.
Teachers are suggested to ask students why the United States still struggles “with the idea of racial equality,” discuss the pros and cons of reparations, and assess “who is responsible for the socio-economic disparities in early U.S. immigration to today.”
In contrast, the moon landing and the space race are each only mentioned once
The guidance also suggests that states like Georgia and Florida have implemented laws that are similar to voting restrictions on black people during the Jim Crow era. Teachers are recommended to provide “Current suppression of voting rights” in examples of Georgia, Texas, Florida, and New Mexico.
“How does the current suppression of voting rights compare to the suppression of voting rights during and immediately following the Reconstruction Era?” a question for students said. 
Another suggested discussion is whether there are “more opportunities for minorities today in the business realm.”
“Absolutely there is more opportunity today than there was back then, but that doesn’t mean that things are totally equal. Even though there are lots of Black owned businesses, the richest men in the country are still mostly white,” a suggested student response to the question said. 
Other guidance included in the history materials is for students to be encouraged to “join a program already in existence and help spread their message to prevent global warming” or write to their representative about climate change. 
Students should be able to define LGBTQ (“Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, queer or questioning”) and PFLAG (“Parents and Friends of Lesbians and Gays”).
“How do historically underrepresented groups such as women of color, LGBTQ and Indigenous people offerse [SIC] diverse views of society,” teachers should ask students, according to the guidance. 
Similar politically focused guidance is found in materials for instruction on <a href="https://defendinged.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/High-School-World-History-NMIS.pdf">world history</a> and <a href="https://web.ped.nm.gov/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/High-School-Ethnic-Cultural-and-Identity.docx.pdf">ethnic studies</a>. 
In the guidance for world history, “equity” is defined as the principle “that all citizens have had different opportunities and experiences, and allocates the exact resources and opportunities needed to reach an equal outcome.”
The world history guidance also contains guidance recommending that students “create their own posters that show their actions on climate change” after watching a climate alarmist documentary from former Vice President Al Gore. 
The ethnic, cultural, and identity guidance discusses left-wing groups like the Southern Poverty Law Center, Black Lives Matter, and the Human Rights Campaign.  
“How do advocacy at the local, community, national and global levels work together to achieve change over time?” a supporting question asks. 
It also introduces students to the concept of “gender identity,” which it defines as ”identification with, or sense of belonging to, a particular group based on gender, such as cisgender, transgender, agender, bigender.”
New Mexico, a solidly blue state, has previously come <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/new-mexico-government-survey-asks-middle-and-high-school-students-if-they-are-two-spirit?author=Leif+Le+Mahieu&amp;category=News&amp;elementPosition=undefined&amp;row=0&amp;rowType=Vertical+List&amp;title=New+Mexico+Government+Survey+Asks+Middle+And+High+School+Students+If+They+Are+‘Two-Spirit’">under scrutiny</a> for asking high school students whether they identify as “two-spirit” or transgender through its Youth Risk and Resiliency Survey.

Trump Supporters Hold “Stop The Steal” Rally In DC Amid Ratification Of Presidential Election

Students In Blue State Spend More Time Learning About January 6 Than The Moon Landing

Education

History

New Mexico

The Virginia General Assembly has now passed legislation regulating how public schools may teach about the events of January 6, 2021. If the bill becomes law, teachers discussing the topic will be required to present the events in a very specific way and prohibited from presenting certain viewpoints about the 2020 election.
Regardless of where one falls politically on those issues, the constitutional problem should be obvious. The First Amendment exists precisely to prevent the government from dictating what citizens must believe or say about matters of public debate. The government may adopt curriculum standards and decide what subjects are taught in public schools, but there is a significant difference between setting a curriculum and mandating a particular political or historical conclusion.
Specifically, the legislation provides that if a Virginia public school chooses to teach about the events of January 6, 2021, the instruction may not portray those events as a “peaceful protest.” It also prohibits teachers from presenting as credible any statement suggesting that there was widespread election fraud that could have changed the results of the 2020 presidential election. The statute goes even further by directing that the events must be described as an “unprecedented, violent attack on United States democratic institutions…for the purpose of overturning the results of the 2020 presidential election.”
In practical terms, the law does two things at once. First, it prohibits certain viewpoints from being discussed as credible in the classroom. Second, it compels teachers to affirm a specific government-approved description of the event.
That distinction matters constitutionally.
The United States Supreme Court has repeatedly made clear that the government cannot compel individuals to speak a government-approved message. From West Virginia State Board of Education v. Barnette in 1943 to more modern cases involving compelled speech, the Court has consistently held that the First Amendment protects citizens from being forced to adopt or express ideological viewpoints mandated by the state.
 This principle is not about whether one agrees with the government’s position. In fact, the entire point of the First Amendment is to protect speech that the government — or even the majority — dislikes.
Once the government is permitted to mandate the “correct” interpretation of a political event, the precedent is dangerous. Today it may be January 6. Tomorrow it could be any number of controversial historical topics. Ask yourself this – if you think HB333 is good – how would you feel if President Trump ordered the Department of Education to mandate all K-12 education that ICE never made mistakes and anyone protesting them were domestic terrorists? Or that Joe Biden was a puppet president lacking mental capability to make any legitimate decisions. No alternatives – just those narratives – in every school in America – no negotiation. I suspect if you are left of center that would make your blood boil – and it’s for these reasons that the Constitution does not allow the government to decide which political narratives are permitted and which must be suppressed.
It is also worth remembering that the role of education is not to enforce political consensus but to encourage critical thinking. Students should be exposed to evidence, debate, and competing interpretations of historical events. That is how a free society educates its citizens. A law that restricts discussion to one approved narrative does the opposite.
To be clear, none of this means schools must endorse every viewpoint or conspiracy theory. Teachers can and should teach facts supported by evidence. But that is different from a legislature commanding that one political interpretation must be presented and others may not even be discussed as credible.
When the government crosses that line, the courts exist to review whether the Constitution has been violated. If this bill becomes law, there is a strong argument that it raises serious First Amendment concerns involving compelled speech and viewpoint discrimination. Those issues deserve careful consideration by the judiciary rather than being resolved through legislative decree. The debate about January 6 will continue for many years, as debates about major historical events always do. But in a constitutional republic, those debates should occur through free discussion and scholarship — not through laws that attempt to enforce a single government-approved narrative.
The Constitution protects the right of Americans to disagree about politics, history, and public affairs. That protection applies even — and perhaps especially — when the government would prefer that disagreement disappear.
 * * * 
Timothy V. Anderson is an attorney and a former member of the Virginia House of Delegates.
The views expressed in this piece are those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.

Abigail Spanberger Sworn In As Virginia Governor

Blue State Moves To Muzzle Oral History Of J6

Leftists

Opinion

Public Schools

Students

Virginia

Democrats in the U.S. House of Representatives used the fifth anniversary of the January 6 protests at the U.S. Capitol to display transparently what their real political agenda is: use the events of that day to tar and feather the Republican Party forever.
House minority leader Hakeem Jeffries pompously declared the hearing a “very solemn, important occasion.”
“Five years ago today, a violent mob incited by Donald Trump attacked the Capitol as part of a concerted effort to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election,” he claimed. He followed by calling the protesters a “bloodthirsty, treacherous mob” that “brutally assaulted police officers and seriously injured more than 140 brave men and women of law enforcement.” He attacked President Trump and “far-right extremists,” accusing them of attempting to “rewrite history.”
In an astonishing aside, considering the Democratic Party’s years-long agenda of opening the floodgates to illegal immigrants, he continued, “The criminals and thugs that Donald Trump pardoned have flooded communities across the country, unleashing violence and mayhem,” calling them an “ongoing threat to public safety.”
Then he segued to the current era, speaking of Republicans while pontificating, “They refuse to serve as a check and balance on an increasingly out-of-control executive branch, preferring to be nothing more than a reckless rubber stamp for Donald Trump’s extreme agenda.”
The true agenda of the Democrats could not have been more clearly revealed than by what Jeffries said in his conclusion: “It was shameful then; it is shameful now, and it will be shameful always and forever.”
Rep. Jamie Raskin, the Democratic ranking member of the House Judiciary Committee, thanked Jeffries and Rep. Bennie Thompson — who had served as Chair of the January 6 Select Committee — for “Not surrendering to the Orwellian project of forgetting, but rather insisting that we remember.”
Raskin wanted to show off his considerable literary chops, as he spanned the literary gamut, quoting author William Faulkner but also comic books, as he intoned, “With election deniers and J6 conspiracists Pam Bondi and Kash Patel at the top of the DOJ, it’s like the Joker, the Riddler, and the Penguin have taken over Gotham City.”
He, too, alluded to the idea that the events of January 6 should be used as a cudgel against the GOP in perpetuity, saying, “It is still January 6 in America, and it will be until the forces of strong, non-violent democracy prevail. We are still in the fight of our lives.”
Of course, back in late June 2020, in the midst of the Black Lives Matter protests, Raskin <a href="https://raskin.house.gov/2020/6/chairman-raskin-s-opening-statement-briefing-first-amendment-violations-black?utm_source=chatgpt.com">declared,</a> “There have been disgraceful episodes of violence against protesters … The unprovoked brutality of some of these offenses against citizen protesters are only known because so many Americans refuse to stop exercising the very freedoms under attack.  &#8230; The people in the streets who moved us to pass the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act are not the “enemies of the people.”  They are the people. In American democracy, the Constitution, the streets, and the future all belong to the people, not to the government. Let’s protect the precious First Amendment rights of the people.”

MixCollage-06-Jan-2026-11-51-AM-3757

January 6: Democrats’ Annual GOP Blame-A-Thon Returns For Its Fifth Season

Democrats

Hakeem Jeffries

Jamie Raskin

A man convicted for his role in the January 6 Capitol protest says he spent years being tortured in jails under the Biden administration, with guards leaving him at the mercy of gangs who beat him for his political beliefs, and keeping him in solitary confinement for months.
Ryan Samsel said prison officials once strapped him to a chair for 17 hours in a gymnasium while groups of schoolchildren gawked at him, and forced him to live in a solitary confinement cell smeared with an MS-13 member&#8217;s feces, with no way to clean it. Someone anonymously called a hospital to cancel a needed medical procedure, he said.
During the 2024 campaign, Donald Trump highlighted Samsel as perhaps the most mistreated January 6 defendant, saying &#8220;These people are being persecuted. One defendant was allegedly viciously and savagely beaten, resulting in numerous broken bones in his face and loss of sight.&#8221;
Samsel has now filed a legal notice under the Federal Tort Claims Act alleging 62 instances of abuse and requesting $18 million in compensation, with his lawyer noting that the government even paid foreign terrorists when they faced abuse at Abu Ghraib prison.
The case raises questions about what the Trump administration might do for January 6 defendants who were pardoned after being physically, mentally, and financially broken.
&#8220;Nobody should forget what Biden did to these patriotic Americans, and a strong signal must be given that torturing citizens is simply not in the cards,&#8221; Samsel&#8217;s attorney, Peter Haller, told The Daily Wire, who called it cruel and unusual punishment.
Samsel was arrested January 30, 2021 for allegedly pushing a crowd control bike rack toward police officers. He remained in a series of jails and prisons until January 20, 2025, when Trump pardoned him.
Samsel was assaulted in the Washington, D.C., jail on March 21, 2021. Medical records from Howard University indicate that the assault led to reduced vision in his right eye and seizures, as well as exacerbation of an existing vascular condition, the filing said.
A D.C. judge &#8220;determined that Mr. Samsel should be transferred to an undisclosed jail for his protection and to receive the medical care he was entitled to. He was transferred to Rappahannock Regional Jail in Virginia,&#8221; the filing said.
At that jail, a cellmate called Samsel a terrorist and attacked him. A doctor there said that Samsel needed serious surgery, including the removal of two ribs due to blood clots, but the jail said it didn&#8217;t have the ability to provide him the necessary care.
Samsel was transferred in July 2021 to the Central Virginia Regional Jail, but none of his medical records followed him, and the recommendations of the University of Virginia doctor he saw there were never followed, his lawyer said.
While he was in the medical unit, a guard slammed his head into the ground; he woke up in a wheelchair being transferred to the hospital, the filing said. When he returned to the jail, he was placed in solitary confinement with the lights on at all times, &#8220;a known form of torture,&#8221; it continued.
&#8220;For approximately seventy to ninety days, Mr. Samsel was housed in reception in a cell that was three feet wide and six feet long. The cell was so small that he had to stand his mattress up to walk. When he asked the deputy warden why he was being kept in such confinement, he was told there was nowhere else to put him and that he was classified as a sex offender,&#8221; despite never having been charged with any sex crimes, the filing said.
&#8220;He could not see out, and the lights were left on at all times. He was never allowed out for exercise,&#8221; it continued.
<div id="attachment_1024019" style="width: 2570px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-1024019" class="size-full wp-image-1024019" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/01/samsel3-scaled.jpg" alt="" width="2560" height="1444" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/01/samsel3-scaled.jpg 2560w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/01/samsel3-300x169.jpg 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/01/samsel3-1021x576.jpg 1021w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/01/samsel3-768x433.jpg 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/01/samsel3-1536x867.jpg 1536w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/01/samsel3-2048x1155.jpg 2048w" sizes=" (max-width: 2560px) 100vw, 2560px" />Ryan Samsel</div>
After Virginia State Police documented that &#8220;Mr. Samsel&#8217;s face hit an officer&#8217;s knee&#8221; and the jail could not provide any evidence that Samsel was given an hour outside each day, which even the most dangerous criminals are supposed to get, he was ordered transferred again.
He was moved to Northern Neck Regional Jail in Virginia, where &#8220;guards stabbed his legs and ankles with keys, then rushed him toward the door and slammed his face and head into it. After the doors opened, he was punched repeatedly in the corridor in view of sixty to ninety inmates,&#8221; the filing said.
He was taken to a hospital which documented &#8220;a broken orbital and stab marks on his legs.&#8221; He called 911, and when authorities contacted the jail, an officer involved with the beating &#8220;acted as if he did not know who Mr. Samsel was,&#8221; the legal papers said.
At a hearing soon after, Samsel &#8220;had outbursts in court&#8221; detailing his treatment in jail, after which he &#8220;was placed in a restraint chair for approximately seventeen hours, on display for local school children to see through a window. He was left in the chair until he was unable to stand due to numbness, then dragged out by officers. He had to sit in his own waste,&#8221; the filing said.
Samsel was then transferred to a federal detention facility in Philadelphia, where &#8220;following a telephone call in which he expressed concerns regarding FBI corruption,&#8221; he was held in solitary confinement for 20 days, until he was moved to the Lewisburg prison.
&#8220;At Lewisburg Penitentiary, a physician initially recommended that Mr. Samsel be placed on house arrest due to the severity of his medical condition but later reversed his opinion after receiving pressure from government officials,&#8221; the filing said.
Haller said in an interview that Samsel &#8220;was not a flight risk, and denying him medical treatment appears to have been an intentional act.&#8221;
The day before a scheduled surgery, guards placed Samsel in &#8220;the hole,&#8221; and someone &#8220;anonymously called the surgeon assigned to his case and canceled all his medical appointments,&#8221; the filing said.
While in solitary confinement, he had to rotate rooms every 10 days, and was behind an MS-13 member &#8220;who would defecate all over his cell and smear it everywhere.&#8221; Samsel would be forced to clean it without any tools, and resorted to breathing down the drain for fresh air, the filing said.
Three months later, he was transferred to the Metropolitan Detention Center Brooklyn, one of the most notorious prisons in America, where he remained from 2022 to 2025. Samsel was housed in a violent gang unit designated for the Mac Baller gang, where he &#8220;attacked for his political beliefs,&#8221; the filing said, at one point forcing him to use dental floss to suture a wound.
Samsel, a devout Christian, was &#8220;denied access to religious services and was never permitted to have a Bible, despite repeated requests,&#8221; the filing said.
Attorney General Pam Bondi has until May to decide whether she wants to settle the case, at which point Samsel can sue the government if the Justice Department declines. The Daily Wire has asked the Department of Justice if it has made any assessment about the case.

Ryan Samsel

January 6 Convict Says He Was Tortured In Prison Under Biden, Seeks $17 Million From Feds

Department of Justice

The 30-year-old man suspected of planting pipe bombs outside the Democratic and Republican Party headquarters in Washington, D.C., on the night before the January 6, 2021, Capitol riot will remain in jail as his case moves forward, a federal judge ruled on Friday.
Brian Cole Jr. was arrested last month and charged with two federal counts related to transporting and attempting to detonate explosive devices. Cole&#8217;s lawyers argued for the federal government to put him under house arrest as he awaits his trial, revealing that he has been diagnosed with autism and obsessive-compulsive disorder and arguing that he poses no threat to society, the New York Post <a href="https://nypost.com/2025/12/30/us-news/dc-pipe-bomb-suspect-brian-cole-jr-is-autistic-and-has-ocd-lawyers-reveal-in-bid-against-pre-trial-detention/">reported</a>.
Prosecutors said that releasing Cole would &#8220;return him to precisely the same circumstances … [as] in the fall of 2020 … when the defendant was planning his crimes and learning about the historical use of pipe bombs.&#8221; U.S. District Court Judge Matthew Sharbaugh sided with the prosecution and ordered Cole to be held without bail, according to <a href="https://www.reuters.com/world/us-judge-orders-man-accused-planting-pipe-bombs-washington-remain-custody-2026-01-02/">Reuters</a>.
&#8220;Although home incarceration and a GPS monitor would provide some check against Mr. Cole’s ability to carry out any menacing or dangerous conduct in the community, the Court is simply not satisfied these conditions rise to the necessary level for the reasons explained,&#8221; Sharbaugh <a href="https://cbsaustin.com/news/nation-world/dc-pipe-bomb-suspect-will-remain-locked-up-ahead-of-trial-brian-cole-prosecution-defense-january-six-donald-trump-detained-jail">wrote</a> in his ruling. &#8220;This is particularly true based on the severity of the potential danger Mr. Cole is alleged to pose, given his alleged persistent acquisition and retention of so-called &#8216;bombmaking parts,&#8217; and given his reported penchant and capacity to create explosive devices and deploy them in public settings.&#8221;
The Department of Justice said that Cole wiped his cellphone 943 times after allegedly planting the bombs until just before his arrest. Cole&#8217;s lawyers, however, argued that he often wiped his phone because of his OCD, not to hide any incriminating evidence, the Post reported. His defense team added that Cole has no history of violence.
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Cole, of Woodbridge, Virginia, was tracked down by federal authorities nearly five years after the pipe bombs were discovered. Investigators combed through thousands of purchases, cellphone data, and license plates before tying Cole to the crime. Federal investigators said that Cole <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/d-c-pipe-bomb-suspect-shed-light-on-his-motive-in-interviews-with-investigators-doj-says">confessed</a> to planting the bombs and expressed support for President Donald Trump. Cole allegedly told authorities in a videotaped confession that he wanted someone to “speak up” about the 2020 election being stolen, adding that people felt “that their votes are like just being thrown away.&#8221;
However, questions remain around the timing of Cole&#8217;s alleged plot to plant the pipe bombs in response to the 2020 election, as charging documents state that Cole purchased the materials for the bombs as early as May 2019, long before the controversy over the 2020 election erupted.
Cole allegedly set the bombs to detonate one hour after he set them, but they never went off. Cole said that he was “pretty relieved” when he learned that the bombs did not detonate, according to the Justice Department.
“Indeed, the defendant admitted that he set both devices to detonate 60 minutes after he placed them,” the DOJ stated. “His failure to accomplish his objectives does not mitigate the profoundly dangerous nature of his crimes.”
FBI Director Kash Patel has pointed to Cole&#8217;s arrest as an example of the bureau&#8217;s failures under the Biden administration, arguing that the pipe bomb case went unsolved for nearly five years due to &#8220;either sheer incompetence or complete intentional negligence.&#8221;
Cole faces up to 30 years in prison.

Brian Cole Jr.

Federal Judge Orders Suspect In Jan 6 Pipe Bomb Case To Stay Behind Bars

Crime

Judge

U.S.

Washington D.C.

The 30-year-old man accused of planting pipe bombs outside of the Democratic and Republican Party headquarters in Washington, D.C., on the night of January 5, 2021, told investigators that he wanted someone to &#8220;speak up&#8221; about the 2020 election being stolen, according to the Department of Justice.
Prosecutors said on Sunday that Brian Cole Jr. gave a &#8220;detailed confession&#8221; about planting the pipe bombs and revealed that he didn&#8217;t &#8220;like either party at this point,&#8221; according to a DOJ memo, The Hill <a href="https://thehill.com/regulation/court-battles/5665154-capitol-riot-pipe-bombs-suspect-confession-justice-department/">reported</a>. Cole allegedly said that he was not a political person, but after Joe Biden&#8217;s win over President Donald Trump in 2020, he began following the news more closely, especially on YouTube and Reddit. Cole said that he believed &#8220;something was wrong&#8221; with the 2020 election and people felt &#8220;that their votes are like just being thrown away,&#8221; and someone needed to &#8220;speak up,&#8221; prosecutors said.
Federal prosecutors argued that Cole should remain detained as the case proceeds. Cole allegedly told investigators that he had no intention of killing or injuring anyone with the pipe bombs, which is why he said he placed them at night. Cole said that he was &#8220;pretty relieved&#8221; when he learned that the bombs never went off after he set them to detonate one hour after he placed them, according to the DOJ. Prosecutors, however, argued that Cole&#8217;s alleged actions put people at risk regardless of whether he intended to harm anyone.
“Indeed, the defendant admitted that he set both devices to detonate 60 minutes after he placed them,” the DOJ memo stated. “His failure to accomplish his objectives does not mitigate the profoundly dangerous nature of his crimes.”
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He allegedly confessed to investigators shortly after his arrest and expressed support for Trump, as was previously <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/d-c-pipe-bomb-suspect-reportedly-confesses-to-investigators">reported</a>. However, questions remain about whether Cole allegedly planted the bombs in response to Trump&#8217;s 2020 election loss, as the charging documents state that he purchased the materials for the bombs as early as May 2019, long before the controversy surrounding the 2020 election erupted. Cole has also expressed anarchist views, according to some reports.
The Daily Wire reported earlier this month that Cole was employed by a bail bonds company run by his father, which worked to free illegal immigrants from ICE facilities and sued the Trump administration’s Department of Homeland Security.
Cole, of Woodbridge, Virginia, was arrested earlier this month after investigators reviewed thousands of purchases, cell phone data, and license plates.

Brian Cole Jr. / Instagram

D.C. Pipe Bomb Suspect Shed Light On His Motive In Interviews With Investigators, DOJ Says

President Donald Trump on Monday sued the BBC over a documentary in which it edited the president’s January 6, 2021, Washington address to create a “false, defamatory, deceptive, disparaging, inflammatory, and malicious depiction” of the president.
Trump sued the British broadcaster for a total of $10 billion for both defamation and a violation of Florida’s Deceptive and Unfair Trade Practices Act over the documentary about the January 6 riot at the U.S. Capitol. The lawsuit was filed in a federal court in Miami.
“This instance of doctoring–in the form of distortion of meaning and splicing of entirely unrelated word sequences–is part of the BBC’s longstanding pattern of manipulating President Trump’s speeches and presenting content in a misleading manner in order to defame him, including fabricating calls for violence that he never made,” the lawsuit states.
“The BBC, faced with overwhelming and justifiable outrage on both sides of the Atlantic, has publicly admitted its staggering breach of journalistic ethics, and apologized, but has made no showing of actual remorse for its wrongdoing nor meaningful institutional changes to prevent future journalistic abuses,” it continues.
The documentary spliced together two small parts of a lengthy speech to “make it appear that President Trump explicitly called for violent action and rioting,” the lawsuit states. The two clips are separated by 55 minutes in Trump&#8217;s original speech, and the documentary also left out Trump’s explicit calls for supporters to protest “peacefully and patriotically.”
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Last month, two BBC executives <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/bbc-execs-resign-after-j6-doc-twists-trump-footage-out-of-context">announced</a> their resignations after controversy erupted around the broadcaster over an internal memo that said the documentary characterized the president of the United States dishonestly. The memo was written by a former outside editorial standards adviser, Michael Prescott, and leaked to the media, throwing the BBC into turmoil as members and allies of the Trump administration blasted the U.K.-backed media outlet with accusations of bias.
The BBC later apologized to Trump for his portrayal in the documentary.
“[W]e accept that our edit unintentionally created the impression that we were showing a single continuous section of the speech, rather than excerpts from different points in the speech, and that this gave the mistaken impression that President Trump had made a direct call for violent action,” the statement said.
“The BBC would like to apologize to President Trump for that error of judgement. This programme was not scheduled to be re-broadcast and will not be broadcast again in this form on any BBC platforms,” it added.

Trump Files $10 Billion Lawsuit Against BBC Over ‘Malicious’ Documentary

Trump Files $5 Billion Lawsuit Against BBC Over ‘Malicious’ Documentary

Media

Miami

World

Brian Cole, Jr. worked for a bail bonds company run by his father that worked to free illegal immigrants from ICE facilities and sued the Trump administration’s Department of Homeland Security.
Weeks before 30-year-old Cole Jr. allegedly <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/d-c-pipe-bomber-charging-papers-unsealed-in-d-c-court">planted pipe bombs</a> at the headquarters of the Democrat and Republican parties on January 5, 2021, a court ruled against the company in its lawsuit attacking the Trump administration on immigration issues, The Daily Wire has learned. An FBI affidavit in the case notes that the suspect works for a bail bond company and lives with his mother.
Later in 2021, the company held a press conference bemoaning anti-black racism with a left-wing attorney. Cole Sr. and Benjamin Crump, who represented the family of Trayvon Martin, attempted to sic the Biden Department of Justice on a local Tennessee prosecutor who had raised questions about the bail bond company.
&#8220;A high-profile civil rights attorney is calling for a federal investigation into a Rutherford County prosecutor accused of discrimination,&#8221; Nashville news outlet <a href="https://wpln.org/post/a-high-profile-civil-rights-attorney-is-calling-for-a-federal-investigation-into-a-rutherford-county-prosecutor-accused-of-discrimination/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">WPLN</a> reported on November 16, 2021.
Cole Sr., who is black, claimed racial persecution by Rutherford County Assistant District Attorney John Zimmerman, <a href="https://www.youtube.com/live/qRlCdl_h9Do?t=496s" target="_blank" rel="noopener">video shows</a>. Zimmerman had raised concerns about the bail bond company’s ethics, noting that it had been suspended from operating in a nearby district.
Standing alongside Crump, he said to the media: &#8220;He&#8217;s defamed me, he&#8217;s called my insurance company. &#8230; We hope the Department of Justice can come in and do a brief investigation because we&#8217;ve seen a lot of questionable acts that Mr. Zimmerman has demonstrated towards minority-owned companies.”
Crump said, “It is appalling and we want these allegations to be investigated to the highest level of government … They called him a punk and a thug, and why? What is it about him? A lot of people believe they know the answer.”
&nbsp;
<div id="attachment_1010237" style="width: 392px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-1010237" class=" wp-image-1010237" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/12/Brian-Cole-copy-300x168.jpg" alt="" width="382" height="214" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/12/Brian-Cole-copy-300x168.jpg 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/12/Brian-Cole-copy-1024x572.jpg 1024w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/12/Brian-Cole-copy-768x429.jpg 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/12/Brian-Cole-copy.jpg 1200w" sizes=" (max-width: 382px) 100vw, 382px" />Cole Sr. with Benjamin Crump / Youtube</div>
In April 2025, a Tennessee appeals court found that sanctions against the company were called for due to repeated misconduct. The elder Cole lied about having never filed for bankruptcy or having other financial problems, when he in fact had filed for bankruptcy twice and had tax liens against him, a <a href="https://www.tncourts.gov/sites/default/files/OpinionsPDFVersion/InReTennesseeBondingCompanyIncOPN.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Tennessee court of appeals affirmed</a>.
Cole Jr. and his father worked as bail bondsmen under various company names, including Free U Bonds, initially in Fairfax County, Virginia. Public records suggest that the father moved to Knoxville, Tennessee, around 2017.
One of those corporate names was StateWide Bonding, Inc., an immigration-bond company that helps illegal immigrants avoid jail.
“An Immigration Bond will secure the release of an undocumented alien from an immigration facility with the guarantee the conditions of the Immigration Bond requirements are met,” its webpage says.
Brian Cole is listed as StateWide Bonding’s owner in a dispute over bonds for illegal immigrants in the state of <a href="https://biahelp.com/colorado-division-of-insurance-v-statewide-bonding-inc/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Colorado</a>.
StateWide sued the Trump administration’s Department of Homeland Security over its policies relating to illegal immigrants. Weeks before Cole allegedly planted the pipe bombs, on November 10, 2020, the U.S. Court of Appeals in D.C. <a href="https://cases.justia.com/federal/appellate-courts/cadc/19-5178/19-5178-2020-11-10.pdf?ts=1605022230" target="_blank" rel="noopener">sided with the administration on</a> the case, ruling that the lower court had properly thrown out all of StateWide’s claims.
One of several <a href="https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.dcd.200024/gov.uscourts.dcd.200024.1.0.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">lawsuits</a> complained that StateWide was being harmed unfairly when its illegal immigrant clients failed to appear at court dates. “Statewide have secured the bond for thousands of immigrants… If an immigrant does not appear, that failure to appear is considered a breach of bond&#8230; When a bond is breached, at that point, all Plaintiffs are subjected to a steep financial penalty,” it said.
“Hundreds of Plaintiffs’ clients fail to appear because Defendants fail to (1) provide said person with a specified date, time, and location to appear in court,” it continued. “Then, only after the subject immigrant fails to appear, these Defendants expect Plaintiffs to find the person in less than 10 days (many times less than 48 hours), or suffer the penalty of paying the sum total of millions of dollars.”
The January 6 pipe bombs were used by Democrats and the media to portray Trump supporters as violent, though during the Biden administration, the FBI claimed it was unable to locate a suspect, and Kamala Harris — who was 20 feet from the bomb at the DNC — never mentioned it.
<a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/d-c-pipe-bomber-charging-papers-unsealed-in-d-c-court" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Charging papers</a> say Cole Jr. began purchasing bomb-making parts by May 2019, during the Trump administration and long before any dispute about election results.
They say his cell phone signal showed that he was in the vicinity of the DNC and RNC when the bombs were placed. The Biden administration quickly used similar cell phone data to apprehend hundreds of Trump supporters for minor crimes.
Editor&#8217;s note: This story was updated shortly after publication to clarify that the company was owned by Cole Sr., while Cole Jr. worked for it.

Alleged Pipe Bomber’s Family Sued Trump DHS Over Illegal Immigration, Asked Biden DOJ To Address Racism

Anti-Racism

Biden Administration

Bombings

Trayvon Martin

Charging documents for the suspected Washington, D.C., pipe bomber <a href="https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.dcd.287327/gov.uscourts.dcd.287327.1.1.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">were unsealed</a> in court on Thursday as the Justice Department announced the arrest of Brian Cole Jr.
According to an FBI affidavit, Cole is 30 years old, 5 feet 6 inches tall, works as a bail bondsman, and lives with his mother in Woodbridge, Virginia. The feds say that Cole used credit cards to purchase bomb-making equipment from Virginia stores.
He bought six pipes, 12 black end caps, and electrical wires from numerous different Home Depots between May 2019 and November 2020. He also purchased steel wool, which was packed inside the pipe bombs, from the national chain. Cole purchased five nine-volt battery connectors from Micro Center, some using cash, and bought kitchen timers from Walmart, according to the charging documents. He also bought tools like protective gloves and disinfectant wipes on November 24, 2020.
The pipe bomber investigation dragged on for nearly five years, and many Americans doubted that the federal government would ever find the culprit. The FBI offered the public a $500,000 reward for information leading to the arrest and conviction of the person who planted bombs at the Republican and Democratic Party headquarters on the eve of the January 6, 2021, Capitol riot. FBI Deputy Director Dan Bongino said at a press conference Thursday afternoon that federal investigators closed in on Cole through &#8220;internal work&#8221; and &#8220;not a public tip.&#8221;
&#8220;You are not going to walk into our capital city, put down two explosive devices, and get away. We would track him to the end of the earth. We didn&#8217;t have to track him that far, he wound up being in Woodbridge, Virginia,&#8221; Bongino said.
Data from Cole&#8217;s cell phone provider showed that he was near the RNC and DNC on January 5, 2021, between 7:39 p.m. and 8:24 p.m. Data from the cell phone company provided in February 2021 contained an error that was corrected two months later, the filing said.
Cole drives a 2017 Nissan Sentra with Virginia plates, and it was captured by a license plate reader on I-395 South near the Capitol at 7:34 p.m. Three weeks before the bombs were placed, on December 14, 2020, Cole bought food from a restaurant in the area.
Attorney General Pam Bondi ripped the Biden administration for failing to solve the case for four years, saying, &#8220;The total lack of movement undermined trust in law enforcement.&#8221;
&#8220;It languished for four years until Kash Patel and Dan Bongino came to the FBI. There was no new tip, no new witness, the information had been sitting at the FBI for four years,&#8221; Bondi added.

RNC/DNC pipe bomb suspect

Charging Docs Reveal How FBI Zeroed In On Suspected D.C. Pipe Bomber

Terrorism

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