U.S. District Judge James Boasberg ordered that two J6 defendants who had received pardons from President Donald J. Trump be refunded restitution payments and fines that were a part of the Biden administration’s criminal cases against them.
Cynthia Ballenger and her husband, Christopher Price, were both tried and convicted on misdemeanor charges related to the so-called “insurrection” at the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021, and ordered to pay hundreds of dollars in restitution and assessment fees, but were among those pardoned by Trump after he took office.
In a Wednesday memo outlining the case history, the Obama appointee reversed an earlier decision denying the refunds.
The judge’s order effectively clears the way for the government to refund the two in full, Fox News reported.
According to the outlet, Boasberg said that the new decision “is the result of an appeals court decision, as well as the timing of Trump’s pardon, which came at the same time as their case had been pending appeal before the D.C. Circuit.”
“Having viewed the question afresh, the court now agrees with the defendants,” he said.
JUST IN: Judge Boasberg has second thoughts and decides to refund $570 apiece to two Jan. 6 defendants whose concivctions were vacated after Trump’s inanuguration. https://t.co/5WMvZlLrYy pic.twitter.com/bMt6QrdlOm
— Kyle Cheney (@kyledcheney) December 3, 2025
“Cynthia Ballenger and her husband, Christopher Price, joined the insurrection at the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021. They were tried on various misdemeanor charges, convicted, and ordered to pay assessment and restitution,” the memo read.
“Both paid their penalties, then appealed their convictions. While those appeals were pending, President Donald Trump pardoned both Defendants, mooting their appeals and so causing their convictions and sentences to be vacated,” the opinion continued.
“Ballenger and Price thus moved this Court to order the Government to return their payments,” Boasberg wrote. “The Court denied the motion, and Defendants now ask the Court to reconsider. Having viewed the question afresh, the Court now agrees with Defendants.”
“When a conviction is vacated, the Government must return any payments exacted because of it. Neither the Appropriations Clause nor sovereign immunity bars that repayment,” the memo stated.
Judge Boasberg had previously rejected the request for the $570 refunds in July. The two defendants asked the court to reconsider, leading to the reversal of the prior decision.
According to Fox News, “Boasberg, in the new memo order, cited the same precedent from July, which states that a pardon alone is not sufficient to entitle a former defendant to any property or compensation lost as a result of the conviction.”
“By itself, defendants’ pardon therefore cannot unlock the retroactive return of their payments that they ask for here,” he said on Wednesday in reiterating that the ruling on that portion of the appeal remains unchanged.
“Rather, he said, the reversal hinged on the fact that both their cases had been pending before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit when Trump granted the pardon, ‘thereby moot[ing] their appeals’ and causing their convictions to be vacated completely by the higher court,” Fox News reported.
“So even if defendants’ pardon does not entitle them to refunds, the resulting vacatur of their convictions might,” the judge wrote, adding it is true no matter what the reason is for the vacatur. “In plain English, vacatur — unlike a pardon — ‘wholly nullifie[s]’ the vacated order and ‘wipes the slate clean.’”
“Because the court could order defendants to pay assessments and restitution, it can order those payments reversed,” Boasberg said. “Those are two sides of the same action, and sovereign immunity does not stand in the way.”
“Having viewed the question afresh, the Court now agrees with defendants,” he said on Wednesday. “When a conviction is vacated, the government must return any payments exacted because of it.”
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Chris Donaldson is an ordinary American who is concerned about rampant corruption as well as the ongoing attacks on our way of life by those who have contempt for our hard-earned freedoms. A Navy veteran, he has been a frequent contributor to conservative websites and resides in Florida.
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