A federal judge has reversed course and ordered full refunds for two Jan. 6 defendants who were pardoned by President Donald Trump, clearing the way for them to recover all restitution payments and fees tied to their earlier misdemeanor convictions.
According to Fox News, U.S. District Judge James Boasberg issued the new ruling on Wednesday, marking a sharp shift from just months ago when he rejected the same request from defendants Cynthia Ballenger and Christopher Price.
Both Ballenger and Price had been convicted on misdemeanor charges stemming from the Jan. 6, 2021, events and were each required to pay $570 in assessment fees and restitution.
Their cases, however, were still on appeal before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit when Trump returned to office this year and issued a sweeping pardon for roughly 1,500 Jan. 6 defendants.
Boasberg explained in a detailed memo order that the timing of the pardon — combined with a recent appellate decision — changed the legal landscape.
“Having viewed the question afresh, the court now agrees with the defendants,” Boasberg wrote.
He emphasized that a pardon alone does not guarantee repayment. In July, he relied on a longstanding precedent stating that a presidential pardon does not entitle a defendant to recover money already paid as part of a sentence.
“By itself, defendants’ pardon therefore cannot unlock the retroactive return of their payments that they ask for here,” he wrote, reiterating that this part of the law remains unchanged.
What mattered instead, Boasberg said, was that the D.C. Circuit vacated their convictions entirely after the pardon mooted their appeals. Once a conviction is wiped from the books, he explained, everything tied to that conviction must be unwound.
“So even if defendants’ pardon does not entitle them to refunds, the resulting vacatur of their convictions might,” he wrote. “In plain English, vacatur — unlike a pardon — ‘wholly nullifies’ the vacated order and ‘wipes the slate clean.’”
Boasberg went further, addressing whether the government’s sovereign immunity or appropriations rules would prevent repayment. He concluded the court had full authority to order the money returned.
“Because the court could order defendants to pay assessments and restitution, it can order those payments reversed,” he wrote. “Those are two sides of the same action, and sovereign immunity does not stand in the way.”
The ruling is expected to be viewed favorably by Trump allies, some of whom have criticized judges who resisted elements of Trump’s broader Jan. 6-related agenda. Boasberg, however, described his ruling as a straightforward application of the law.
“When a conviction is vacated, the government must return any payments exacted because of it,” he said.
Earlier this year, Democrats sharply criticized Trump’s mass pardons for Jan. 6 defendants. The late Rep. Gerald Connolly argued the move effectively let participants “off the hook” for an estimated $2.7 billion in damage to the U.S. Capitol.
With Wednesday’s ruling, Ballenger and Price are now entitled to full repayment, closing another chapter in the long legal fallout surrounding Jan. 6.
