Adam Obest said he’s recovered after being arrested, charged and prosecuted in connection with the Jan. 6, 2021, riot at the U.S. Capitol. But he said others haven’t been as fortunate.
“When the government comes down on you, it can destroy your life,” said Obest, 45, who lives in Thurmont in Frederick County. “I hope people can recover through this restitution and this fund.”
The U.S. Department of Justice this week announced the creation of a $1.8 billion “anti-weaponization fund” as part of a settlement to end President Donald Trump’s lawsuit against the Internal Revenue Service over the leak of his tax returns. The money could be used to compensate almost 1,600 people who were pardoned in the attack, including dozens from Maryland.
Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche on Tuesday defended the fund before Congress and did not rule out that those who assaulted police officers would be eligible for compensation.
The violence interrupted the certification of the 2020 presidential election, injured more than 100 police officers and resulted in more than $2.9 million in damage. At least five people, including U.S. Capitol Police Officer Brian Sicknick, died during or shortly after the onslaught, and several police officers who responded to the attack later killed themselves.
Trump has tried to rewrite history about what happened that day, and a page on the White House website blames Democrats for casting “peaceful patriotic protesters” as insurrectionists.
Obest said, despite his arrest and prosecution, he kept his home. He found a new job in the solar power field after leaving his position at the U.S. Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services. And his marriage held strong.
He said it would be amazing if he received an amount like $50,000. But Obest said there are other “J6ers” — police officers, teachers, veterans — who greatly suffered.
Elias Costianes, who used to live in Baltimore County, said he learned about the fund on social media.
Costianes, 47, was convicted of illegally having firearms and ammunition, which law enforcement found when searching his Nottingham home during its investigation into the insurrection.
He was pardoned for storming the Capitol — his charges had been pending — and then federal prosecutors during the Trump administration decided he should be released from prison for the gun conviction.
Costianes declined to speak on the phone but responded to questions over text message.
Despite describing himself as financially destitute, Costianes wrote he was “indifferent to the fund.”
“I never counted on a dime,” he said.
Still, Costianes, who now lives in Morgantown, West Virginia, said he was immediately taking steps to file a claim for compensation. He said he hoped to recoup thousands of dollars he spent in attorney fees and bemoaned what he described as wrongful imprisonment.
Costianes said the ordeal over a “glorified misdemeanor” left him with insomnia and cost him relationships with family and friends.
“No amount of money will solve anything of what I’ve gone through,” Costianes said.
Uncertainty surrounds the program.
Two men who helped defend the building — former U.S. Capitol Police officer and current Maryland congressional candidate Harry Dunn and Metropolitan Police Officer Daniel Hodges — filed a lawsuit in U.S. District Court in Washington to block payouts. Meanwhile, U.S. Sen. Chris Van Hollen, a Democrat from Maryland, said he’d be offering a similar amendment to a pending budget bill.
Defense attorney Andrés Jalon said he plans to talk with his client, Brandon Heffner, 40, of Harford County, about the fund. It remains unclear to Jalon how someone can apply and whether the potential payout would cover attorney fees or damages for wrongful prosecution.
Trump’s pardon was more powerful than an acquittal, Jalon said.
“This is an order that said there was never enough evidence,” he said. “Under that order, any prosecution should not have occurred.”
Jalon said he will encourage his client to seek to recoup the cost of legal representation, at a minimum.
Before the FBI arrested him in 2023, Obest recalled feeling dead after seeing a wanted photo online seeking his identity. He was 422-AFO.
At his trial in 2024, U.S. District Judge Amit P. Mehta convicted Obest of civil disorder, assaulting, resisting or impeding a law enforcement officer and related crimes.
Obest engaged in a verbal and physical confrontation with police outside the Capitol, raised a flagpole and abruptly brought it down toward them, prosecutors alleged. They accused him of trying to grab a police officer’s baton and throwing a smoke grenade he picked up off the ground.
Prosecutors asked the judge to impose a sentence of 51 months, writing that Obest’s actions “embodied the antithesis of patriotism.”
In an interview this week, Obest asserted that police for no reason pepper-sprayed him and his wife, Anastasia, who was not charged. He said the couple did not know they should not have been on the grounds, and they never entered the building.
As a 20-year veteran of the U.S. Army National Guard, Obest said, he would never attack a police officer. He noted he was cleared of allegations he used the flagpole as a deadly or dangerous weapon.
Obest was sentenced to 18 months in prison but never served a day because Trump pardoned him before he had to report.
Though Obest said he knew he’d be fine, other J6ers “are not OK.” He added Jan. 6, 2021, will go down as a horrible time in history.
Comments
Welcome to The Banner's subscriber-only commenting community. Please review our community guidelines.