A federal judge has rejected the Justice Department’s effort to repay $63,000 to a member of the Jan. 6 mob who filmed the fatal shooting of rioter Ashli Babbitt and then sold the footage for profit.

John Sullivan, who was freed from a six-year jail sentence after President Donald Trump’s sweeping Day One pardons, had forfeited those profits to the federal government as a consequence of his criminal conviction. After Trump wiped out his case, Sullivan asked the court to permit him to reclaim the money he forked over. The Justice Department and then-interim U.S. Attorney Ed Martin sided with Sullivan.

But U.S. District Judge Royce Lamberth said Tuesday that a quick refund would be unconstitutional. Sullivan’s funds had been deposited in the U.S. Treasury, he noted, and under the Constitution’s “appropriations clause,” only Congress can authorize the disbursement of funds held by the Treasury.

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