Driving the news: Howell made the costing comments during the plea hearing of Glenn Wes Lee Croy, 46 of Colorado Springs, Colo., who "pleaded guilty to parading, demonstrating or picketing in a capitol building" after attending a pro-Trump rally, according to KUSA.
What they're saying: Howell questioned why the U.S. attorney’s office was looking to "require only $2,000 in each felony case and $500 in each misdemeanor case," the Washington Post notes.
- "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," she said, according to WashPost.
- "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."
- Prosecutor Clayton O'Connor told the judge he'd be "happy to" get her the answer to her costings question, Politico reports.
Context: Congress last month passed a $2.1 billion Capitol security bill to help cover the costs incurred during the deadly insurrection.
- This included $70.7 million for the Capitol Police response to the attack and $521 million to reimburse the National Guard for deploying guards to help with security efforts on Jan. 6 and after.
Background: Prosecutors announced riot damage estimate of "approximately $1,495,326.55" in June. While it was unclear how it arrived at this figure, it seems to be related to damages such as broken windows, per WashPost.
- A spokesperson for the Architect of the Capitol said the agency "gave damage assessments to the Justice Department, which calculated the per-case penalty, and separate assessments to House and Senate appropriators for wider security costs," the outlet reports.
- The U.S. Attorney's Office has declined to comment on Howell's latest remarks beyond what was said in court.
