Indiana J6er Who ‘Destroyed Nothing, Protected Police’ Makes Case for Anti-Weaponization Payout

The wife of an Indiana couple sentenced to prison for participation in the January 6, 2021, riots on Capitol Hill is making her case for why she and her husband should be eligible to receive compensation from the $1.776 billion anti-weaponization fund that President Trump announced last week as part of his settlement with the IRS over the release of his tax documents. “We were peaceful protesters who harmed no one, destroyed nothing, protected police, and yet our family was torn apart, terrorized, and left to pick up the pieces of a life deliberately broken,” Jessica Reyher wrote in a social media post over the weekend. The fund, ostensibly set up to compensate individuals who claim they were victims of lawfare, is facing backlash from lawmakers and private citizens on both sides of the aisle who call it a “slush fund” to reward Trump supporters on the backs of taxpayers. They specifically point to the potential to award as many as 1,600 individuals who were charged or convicted for crimes associated with their participation in the January 6 riots. Mr. Trump pardoned all of those defendants on his first day in office. Last week, the acting attorney general, Todd Blanche, said the fund, set to expire at the end of President Trump’s term in early 2029, is supposed to be administered by an as-yet unnamed five-member commission appointed by Mr. Blanche, with one member recommended by lawmakers. The fund, which can award up to $2.7 million per claimant, is to be available to anyone who feels they were mistreated by the police or court system because of their political opinions. The former FBI director, James Comey, has already hinted that he’s considering an application. Now, Jessica Reyher, who with her husband Arthur Reyher, of Brownsburg, Indiana, pled guilty in November 2023 to a felony offense of obstruction of law enforcement during a civil disorder, has offered her take on why they should be entitled to the funds. According to the Biden Justice Department, the couple participated in several attempts by the crowd to break through a police barrier in the Lower West Terrace and access a tunnel to enter the Capitol Building on January 6, while the electoral vote was being certified by lawmakers. “Once inside (the tunnel), the two quickly pushed to the front of the crowd of rioters and joined others in aggressively pushing against the established police line,” reads the Justice Department account.The Reyhers never made it into the Capitol. A police officer pressed by the crowd they were at the front of was injured blocking the doorway. The Reyhers then left at about 3:05 p.m., according to the DOJ, after being sprayed with a chemical irritant that police used to disperse the crowd. They were visited by the FBI at their home in Indiana two weeks later after the FBI received a tip about their identities distributed on a social media post. Despite a mostly aligned telling of events, Mrs. Reyher offered a very different interpretation of the confrontation. She said she and her husband were not particularly supporters of Mr. Trump — Mr. Reyher voted for a third-party candidate in 2020 — nonetheless went to Washington to the “Stop the Steal” rally because they felt the election had been rigged. After the president’s speech, a march to the Capitol began which was supposed to follow Mr. Trump, who never arrived there. She said when they rolled up, “police began to attack the crowd via tear gas, pepper balls, flash bangs, and rubber bullets,” which caused the crowd to become “highly agitated.” Her husband tried to calm the crowds and appeal to them to remain peaceful. After they walked around to the entrance to the tunnel from the inauguration stage, they noticed a crowd so went down to see what was happening. Despite the massive group, the couple pushed through the tunnel, where Mr. Reyher tried to get the front of the crowd to “intervene” and try to calm the crowd and urge rioters to push, but not hit police officers. “He was repeatedly batoned, tear-gassed, and pepper-sprayed, but NEVER attempted to strike police officers. Instead he used his own body to shield them. We took weapons from violent protesters and gave them to the officers,” she wrote, adding that they tried to help the officer get unpinned from the door despite being pelted with police munitions. In March 2023, the Reyhers were arrested and charged with felony crimes that could result in up to 10 years in prison. A statement of fact by an FBI special agent who interviewed them largely tracks with Mrs. Reyher’s account, but states that Mr. Reyher was screaming “Our House” as he advised others how to break through the police line.In the end, Mrs. Reyher spent 90 days in prison, was ordered to pay $2,000 in restitution, and to serve three years of supervised release. Mr. Reyher spent eight months in prison, was ordered to pay $2,000 in restitution and serve three years of supervised release as well as 200 hours of community service. Mrs. Reyher said as a result of their arrests, the couple faced death threats from strangers. Mrs. Reyher said they were audited by the IRS. Despite supplying all the requested receipts, she said a judge ordered them to pay $90,000 in fines, which they are appealing. They are also trying to pay down a small business loan, which they took out after losing customers due to the notoriety of their arrest. They secured a loan against their house and Mr. Reyher got a job with a company he does not disclose for fear it will be doxxed and “flooded with negative reviews, until they have to fire him.” Mrs. Reyher said as peaceful protesters who tried to calm the crowd but instead were thrown into prison, “no amount of compensation can restore what was stolen from us . . . but the wrongs done to our family deserve to be fully righted.”Her remarks prompted a significant negative response, with commenters calling the Reyhers traitors, insurrectionists, and liars. However, she did receive several positive comments from the president’s supporters who called her a victim of the “terror” committed by the Biden administration. While Mrs. Reyher did not say whether she and her husband will file for the fund, she posted a video from Vice President Vance’s press briefing last week in which he said each application will be measured on its own merits. “We have to evaluate this thing case by case,” he said. “Maybe they did something bad even but what they were accused of was way worse of what they actually did. Maybe they had their entire lives ruined in a totally disproportionate way. That’s fundamentally illegitimate and political.” However, the Reyhers and other would-be applicants may never see a dime. The bipartisan co-chairs of the House Problem Solvers Caucus, Congressmen Brian Fitzpatrick and Tom Suozzi, introduced legislation on Friday that would block the fund, saying that while individuals are able to seek redress from the government for wrongful acts, the anti-weaponization fund has taken it too far.“Congress appropriates money. The executive branch does not have a dime of money in its own right,”said Mr. Fitzpatrick of Pennsylvania on ABC’s “This Week.” “Every dollar that goes to the executive branch emanates from Article I, emanates from Congress through the appropriations process we are in now. It has to come before Congress.”“This is clearly the wrong thing to do,” added Mr. Suozzi. “Nobody supports this idea, especially in the context of all the problems Americans are facing with the cost of living. They don’t want to see a $1.8 billion fund to pay people that beat up cops. So it’s wrong, it’s stupid. Whatever you want to pick.”

Indiana J6er Who ‘Destroyed Nothing, Protected Police’ Makes Case for Anti-Weaponization Payout

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