SAN DIEGO (KGTV) – Several San Diego residents charged in connection with the January 6 Capitol riot are speaking out after the Justice Department announced the creation of a fund to compensate those who allege they were wrongly targeted under the Biden administration.<\/p>\n
Jordan Berk and David Gary are among those who say they plan to file claims with the nearly $1.8 billion settlement fund if they are eligible. DOJ officials say the fund was created to compensate those wrongly targeted under the Biden administration, though a political battle being waged could reshape what the settlement fund looks like. The DOJ announced the formation of the fund as part of a settlement involving Trump lawsuit over leaked tax returns.<\/p>\n
“Definitely surprised and delighted,” Berk said.<\/p>\n
Berk pleaded guilty to a federal misdemeanor count of entering and remaining in a restricted building during the Capitol riot. He served a 2-month home confinement sentence, which I first reported on in January 2025, along with 2 years of probation. Because of the charges, he lost his job at a financial services company.<\/p>\n
Berk and some 1,600 others received presidential pardons on Inauguration Day. However, his lawyer told him the arrest would likely still appear on background checks. He applied for jobs for a year.<\/p>\n
“Hit that apply button hundreds, thousands of times. Got a few interviews, but pretty much didn’t get any follow-ups or callbacks,” Berk said.<\/p>\n
Since last fall, Berk has been in Asia, where he has become a digital nomad, trading stocks and earning modest returns. He said he intends to pursue a claim.<\/p>\n
“Of course, I feel like I have a case for damages,” Berk said. “It was cruel and unusual, or whatever terms you can throw at it. It was way overdone in terms of the punishment.\u201d<\/p>\n
When asked how he would respond to critics who say the fund essentially rewards people who committed crimes, Berk said:<\/p>\n
“If you think it’s unfair, imagine what we all went through.\u201d<\/p>\n
David Gary’s misdemeanor case was expected to be dismissed amid the pardons when I spoke to him and his wife in January 2025. The charges were later dropped.<\/p>\n
In a statement, Gary said he also plans to pursue a claim.<\/p>\n
“If eligible, I will submit a claim. This has caused emotional turmoil. We still have outstanding legal costs,” Gary said.<\/p>\n
Berk echoed that sentiment.<\/p>\n
“We had much taken from us. Why wouldn’t we ask to be recompensed for that?” Berk said.<\/p>\n
This story was reported on-air by a journalist and has been converted to this platform with the assistance of AI. Our editorial team verifies all reporting on all platforms for fairness and accuracy.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"SAN DIEGO (KGTV) – Several San Diego residents charged in connection with the January 6 Capitol riot are…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":327023,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[112700,135921,135922,30203,74,76,75,1519],"class_list":["post-327022","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-san-diego","tag-capitol-riot","tag-jan-6","tag-jan-6-riot","tag-pardon","tag-san-diego","tag-san-diego-headlines","tag-san-diego-news","tag-trump"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/327022","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=327022"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/327022\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/327023"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=327022"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=327022"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=327022"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}