{"id":149311,"date":"2025-08-29T12:10:14","date_gmt":"2025-08-29T17:10:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/worldtribune.com\/?p=149206"},"modified":"2025-08-29T12:10:14","modified_gmt":"2025-08-29T17:10:14","slug":"judge-reluctantly-approves-refund-of-fines-paid-by-pardoned-j6-defendant","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/worldtribune.com\/2025\/judge-reluctantly-approves-refund-of-fines-paid-by-pardoned-j6-defendant\/","title":{"rendered":"Judge reluctantly approves refund of fines paid by pardoned J6 defendant"},"content":{"rendered":"

by<\/em><\/span> WorldTribune<\/strong> Staff \/ <\/em><\/span><\/span>247 Real News<\/strong><\/span><\/a> August 28, 2025<\/em> <\/span><\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

In a first, a federal judge has approved the refund of fines and restitution paid by a pardoned Jan. 6 defendant.<\/p>\n

U.S. District Judge John Bates approved the return of the $2,000 restitution paid by Yvonne St. Cyr, concluding that because she had appealed her conviction \u2014 and the appeal was still pending when President Donald Trump\u2019s pardon ended her case \u2014 she was no longer guilty in the eyes of the law and was entitled to the return of her funds.<\/p>\n

\"\"
Yvonne St Cyr at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. \/ Department of Justice<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

She was also refunded a separate $270 penalty applied after her sentencing.<\/p>\n

\u201cSometimes a judge is called upon to do what the law requires, even if it may seem at odds with what justice or one\u2019s initial instincts might warrant,\u201d\u00a0Bates, a George W. Bush appointee, wrote<\/a><\/span>. \u201cThis is one such occasion.\u201d<\/p>\n

Bates presided over a jury trial that resulted in St. Cyr\u2019s conviction in March 2023. She was convicted of two felony counts of impeding police during a civil disorder, egging on protesters near the Capitol\u2019s Lower West Terrace tunnel.<\/p>\n

A defiant St. Cyr told Bates she \u201cdid the right thing\u201d on J6 just before he sentenced her to 30 months in prison.<\/p>\n

Despite his reluctance, Bates became the first judge to approve the return of fines and restitution paid by a Jan. 6 protester.<\/p>\n

Several other judges\u00a0rejected<\/span><\/a>\u00a0similar<\/a>\u00a0efforts<\/a><\/span>, saying that even if Trump had pardoned them, the protesters could not recoup funds they had already paid as part of their sentences. Several judges contended they were unable to authorize refunds because the money had already been paid into the U.S. Treasury \u2014 and only Congress can approve such withdrawals.<\/p>\n

\n

Support<\/span> Free Press Foundation<\/a><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

by WorldTribune Staff \/ 247 Real News August 28, 2025 In a first, a federal judge has approved the refund of fines and restitution paid by a pardoned Jan. 6 defendant. U.S. District Judge John Bates approved the return of the $2,000 restitution paid by Yvonne St. Cyr, concluding that because she had appealed her […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":149218,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,3,24,16],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-149311","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-breaking","category-exclusives","category-u-s-intelligence","category-u-s-politics","last_archivepost"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/worldtribune.com\/2025\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/149311","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/worldtribune.com\/2025\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/worldtribune.com\/2025\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worldtribune.com\/2025\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worldtribune.com\/2025\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=149311"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/worldtribune.com\/2025\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/149311\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worldtribune.com\/2025\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/149218"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/worldtribune.com\/2025\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=149311"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worldtribune.com\/2025\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=149311"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worldtribune.com\/2025\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=149311"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}