Chief Judge Howell '78 Asks Why Capitol Rioters Aren't Paying More For Attack

At an Aug. 9 plea hearing, Chief Judge Beryl A. Howell '78 of the U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C., "questioned why U.S. prosecutors are asking Capitol riot defendants to pay only $1.5 million in restitution while American taxpayers are paying more than $500 million to cover the costs of the Jan. 6 attack by a pro-Trump mob," reports The Washington Post.

From the article:

“I’m accustomed to the government being fairly aggressive in terms of fraud when there have been damages that accrue from a criminal act for the restitution amount,” said Howell, a former Brooklyn federal prosecutor and Senate Judiciary Committee general counsel.

“Where we have Congress acting, appropriating all this money due directly to the events of January 6th, I have found the damage amount of less than $1.5 million—when all of us American taxpayers are about to foot the bill for close to half a billion dollars—a little bit surprising,” she said.

Politico also reported on the hearing.

Howell received her A.B. with honors in philosophy in 1978 from Bryn Mawr and her J.D. in 1983 from Columbia University School of Law. She recently returned to campus to speak to the Class of 2020 at an in-person graduation celebration.