In a stunning reversal, U.S. District Judge James Boasberg — the same judge who just months ago refused to give a pair of Jan. 6 misdemeanor defendants their money back — has now ordered the federal government to fully refund their restitution and fees after their convictions were wiped clean.
Cynthia Ballenger and Christopher Price, a married couple convicted on misdemeanor charges tied to the Jan. 6, 2021 Capitol riot, had already shelled out hundreds in fines while appealing their case. Then came Donald Trump’s second-term mass pardon, a sweeping act that covered roughly 1,500 Jan. 6 defendants and detonated their appeals mid-process.
Back in July, Boasberg told them “no” — a pardon wasn’t enough to reopen the government’s wallet. But the D.C. Circuit Court later vacated their convictions entirely because their appeal became moot once Trump issued the pardon. And that, Boasberg now says, changes everything.
“Vacatur — unlike a pardon — wipes the slate clean,” he wrote in Wednesday’s memo order, acknowledging that his earlier stance no longer held. “The court now agrees with defendants.”
In plain English: because the convictions no longer exist, the government can’t keep the money.
The refund amounts are small — about $570 each — but the legal impact is anything but. Boasberg concluded that the court not only can reverse restitution payments tied to vacated convictions, but that sovereign immunity doesn’t block the refund. If the court had the power to order the payments in the first place, he ruled, it has the authority to undo them.
The decision is likely to be welcomed by Trump allies, who have clashed repeatedly with Boasberg over his handling of cases involving Trump’s executive actions. For Democrats, who slammed Trump’s blanket Jan. 6 pardons as reckless, the ruling adds fresh controversy. The late Rep. Gerald Connolly had warned that Trump’s actions let Capitol rioters “off the hook,” pointing to an estimated $2.7 billion in damages.
But Boasberg’s ruling is blunt: once the convictions were vacated, the law requires a refund — no matter why they were vacated.
“When a conviction is vacated,” he wrote, “the government must return any payments exacted because of it.”
