Boston Bomber Gets A Fat Government Check But Owes Millions In Restitution

Boston Marathon bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev received $1,400 in COVID-19 relief funds from the most recent round of federal stimulus, according to court documents.

Tsarnaev received the $1,400 stimulus payment in mid-June 2021, according to a Wednesday filing by federal prosecutors. The documents also show he had received roughly $20,000 from other sources. The money can be used by him to buy goods and products for use in prison, including clothing and food.

The convicted bomber has received over $11,00 from the Office of Federal DefendeYork, $2,500 from an individual in Indianapolis, over $1,400 from a person in Bloomfield, New Jersey, $950 from a person in Frederick, Maryland, and nearly $3,500 from dozens of other individuals, according to the filing.

Prosecutors argue that these donations to Tsarnaev should go towards the settlement owed his victims because he was ordered to pay $101,126,627 in restitution, alleging Tsarnaev had not been using the funds for appropriate purposes but had instead been sending the money to friends and relatives.

The prosecutors also argue that Tsarnaev did not notify authorities that he had received some of the donations.

“The Defendant cannot properly claim that the funds held in his inmate trust account are exempt from payment of his special assessment and obligation,” prosecutors wrote.

Tsarnaev was initially sentenced to death for his role in the 2013 attack on the Boston Marathon which he carried out with his older brother Tamerlan. Three people were killed in the bombing and more than 260 others were injured. Tamerlan was killed by authorities during the manhunt.

A federal appellate court vacated Tsarnaev’s death sentence in July 2020, arguing that the jury selection in Tsarnaev’s trial did not meet the proper standard of fairness.