(Ken Silva, Headline USA) According to Senate Democrats, damage from the Jan. 6, 2021, violence on Capitol Hill cost more than all the summer 2020 riots combined.
Indeed, the Senate Homeland Security Committee released a report this week that estimated a whopping $2.7 billion in damages from J6.
“Over 2,000 individuals participated in the seven-hour attack, assaulting at least 174 police officers and causing more than $2.7 billion in damage,” the report stated.
By contrast, insurers have reportedly estimated the total damage from the riots of summer 2020 to be around $2 billion. Not only does the Senate’s estimate exceed that; it also marks a 99,900% increase over the Justice Department’s $2.7 million figure.
The Senate committee report cited an earlier Government Accountability Office report as basis for its $2.7 billion estimate. The GAO, in turn, cited the DOJ—even though prosecutors have been using their lower $2.7 million estimate to determine the restitution J6 defendants should pay.
Headline USA reached out to the GAO to see if its $2.7 billion figure was accurate—or if perhaps someone accidentally wrote “billion” instead of “million” in their report.
The GAO responded that the office did intend to report the $2.7 billion estimate. However, the GAO said it mistakenly attributed its estimate to the DOJ, when in fact the GAO did its own number-crunching.
“The $2.7 billion figure does not come from DOJ. This amount reflects, among other things, damage to the Capitol building and grounds, certain costs borne by the Capitol Police, the District of Columbia, and other federal agencies, and costs to address security needs,” said GAO’s Managing Director of Public Affairs Chuck Young. “I believe a revised version is planned to correct the issue, but I don’t think it has been issued quite yet.”
Headline USA has filed a request with the GAO for records that explain exactly how it came to its $2.7 billion figure. While the GAO said this number included more than just damages, the Senate report clearly alleged that $2.7 billion in “damage” was done on Jan. 6, 2021.
Digging into @GaryPeters report on Jan 6 intel failures—
Claims $2.7 BILLION in damages (DOJ set figure at roughly $2 million) and that 5 police officers died. All Democrats do is lie. pic.twitter.com/WfcC3WsoN9
— Julie Kelly 🇺🇸 (@julie_kelly2) June 27, 2023
The $2.7-billion figure in the Senate report isn’t the only dubious number. As noted by conservative commentator Julie Kelly, the report also repeated the false claim that J6 contributed to the deaths of five police officers. In fact, four Capitol Police officers allegedly committed suicide after J6, and one died of a stroke—none of the deaths being directly attributed to the protest.
“All Democrats do is lie,” Kelly said of the Senate report.
Ken Silva is a staff writer at Headline USA. Follow him at twitter.com/jd_cashless.
