The Senate-approved legislation to reopen the federal government includes a provision that allows Senators whose phone records were subpoenaed during the DOJ investigation of alleged 2020 presidential election interference to sue the federal government.
Eight Republican Senators — Lindsey Graham (SC), Ron Johnson (WI), Marsha Blackburn (TN), Cynthia Lummis (WY), Bill Hagerty (TN), Josh Hawley (MO), Dan Sullivan (AK), and Tommy Tuberville (AL) — whose records were subpoenaed during the probe can now each sue the government for up to $500,000.
As seen below, at the House Rules Committee meeting on the funding bill to reopen the government, Rep. Teresa Leger Fernandez (D-NM) said she wants Americans to know that the subpoenas by the FBI were authorized by the courts and grand juries when they were looking into what happened around the January 6th insurrection.
Officers were injured defending this Capitol on January 6th.
And now eight Senators snuck in a MILLION-DOLLAR PAYOUT for themselves for being investigated for their possible involvement in the insurrection. pic.twitter.com/V9wiGR1IJa
— Rep. Teresa Leger Fernández (@RepTeresaLF) November 12, 2025
Fernandez said: “The American people saw that this place was overran by violent attackers.” She looked around the room: “We were here. We were here.”
She added: “There were 140 law enforcement officers who went to the hospital. 140 police officers went to the hospital, and now we’re gonna pay senators…we’re gonna pay them millions of dollars instead of providing any money to the veterans, instead of providing any money to the children, to the families? It is outrageous. And it is horrible.”
Ryan Nichols, Sr., a Marine veteran and self-described “pardoned Jan6 patriot,” replied to Fernandez: “If they’re getting paid a million, I need a billion.”
If they’re getting paid a million, I need a billion.
— Ryan Nichols Sr. (@RealRyanNichols) November 12, 2025
According to the U.S. Department of Justice press release dated May 2, 2024, “Ryan Taylor Nichols, 32, of Longview, Texas, was sentenced by U.S. District Judge Royce C. Lamberth to 63 months in prison and 36 months of supervised release. Judge Lamberth also ordered Nichols to pay a fine of $200,000, restitution in the amount of $2,000, and a special assessment of $200. Nichols pleaded guilty to obstruction of an official proceeding and assaulting, resisting, or impeding certain officers on Nov. 7, 2024, both felony offenses.”
Note: After President Trump characterized those who had been jailed, tried and convicted for their activities on and around January 6, 2021 as “political prisoners,” Judge Royce Lamberth — a Reagan-appointee who had presided over dozens of the cases — wrote a court filing in 2024, and remarked, in part:
“I have been shocked to watch some public figures try to rewrite history, claiming rioters behaved ‘in an orderly fashion’ like ordinary tourists, or martyrizing convicted January 6 defendants as ‘political prisoners’ or even, incredibly, ‘hostages.’ That is all preposterous. But the Court fears that such destructive, misguided rhetoric could presage further danger to our country.”