Judge Boasberg orders couple pardoned by Trump for Jan 6 be refunded restitution payments, fines

U.S. District Judge James Boasberg has ordered that a couple pardoned by President Trump for their convictions regarding the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol riot be refunded their restitution payments and fines, reversing his earlier decision.

On Wednesday, Boasberg ruled that because of the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals decision, Cynthia Ballenger and her husband, Christopher Price, are to be refunded the $570 each in restitution payments and other fees paid as a part of their convictions, Fox News reported. 

Ballenger and Price had been convicted on misdemeanor charges in connection with Jan. 6, before Trump pardoned them earlier this year with about 1,500 other defendants.

"Having viewed the question afresh, the court now agrees with the defendants," Boasberg said.

In July, Boasberg rejected the couple's request to be refunded the $570. However, they later asked him to reconsider.

Boasberg on Wednesday said that the pardon alone is insufficient to entitle a former defendant to any property or compensation lost as a result of the conviction. However, both their cases had been pending before the D.C. Circuit Court when Trump granted the pardon, "thereby moot[ing] their appeals" and causing their convictions to be vacated completely by the higher court.

"So even if defendants’ pardon does not entitle them to refunds, the resulting vacatur of their convictions might," Boasberg wrote. "In plain English, vacatur — unlike a pardon — ‘wholly nullifie[s]’ the vacated order and ‘wipes the slate clean.'"

"When a conviction is vacated, the government must return any payments exacted because of it," he added.