Many of the convicted rioters who stormed the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, are clamoring for payouts from the nearly $1.8 billion settlement that the Trump administration has set up for people claiming to be victims of a weaponized government. Whether they'll be eligible for any money remains an open question. The political and legal backlash to the administration's move hasn't dimmed the celebratory response from Capitol rioters. Some are staking claims to the money even though the government hasn’t established an application process yet and a judge has frozen the fund’s formation, at least temporarily.

Two police officers who helped defend the U.S. Capitol from an attack by a mob of Trump supporters are suing to block anyone — including Jan. 6, 2021, rioters — from receiving payouts from a new $1.776 billion settlement fund for people who claim to be victims of politically motivated prosecutions. The officers’ attorneys filed the federal lawsuit on Wednesday, a day after Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche defended the fund’s creation during a congressional hearing. Blanche, a personal attorney for President Donald Trump before joining the Justice Department, wouldn’t rule out the possibility that rioters who assaulted police on Jan. 6 would be eligible for fund payouts.

It was a hurdle too high for Bill Cassidy to clear. The Republican senator from Louisiana had tried to satisfy Donald Trump and his supporters, but they couldn't forgive him after he voted to convict at the president's impeachment trial over the Jan. 6 riot at the U.S. Capitol. That was more than five years ago and the ill will lingered. Trump backed one of Cassidy's challengers in Saturday's Senate primary, and the incumbent finished third. He didn't even make the June runoff. Cassidy is the latest name on an increasingly long list of Republicans who crossed Trump and were punished by voters.