Federal officials gave convicted Boston Marathon bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev a COVID-19 relief payment of $1,400 last year, according to newly filed court documents, but he would not have obtained that money without help from Georgia’s two U.S. senators.
Senator Raphael Warnock (D-GA) and Senator Jon Ossoff (D-GA) helped defeat an amendment to a bill that would have prevented that money from going to Tsarnaev.
Massachusetts prosecutors said in a court filing Wednesday that Tsarnaev received this taxpayer money in June 2021.
Three months prior, in March, U.S. senators voted on a proposed amendment to the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021. That amendment, if enacted into law, would have forbidden the feds from giving 2021 Recovery Rebates to prisoners. Senators rejected that amendment by a vote of 50 to 49. U.S. Senator Dan Sullivan (R-AK) did not vote, according to the U.S. Senate’s website.
Exactly 49 other senators, all Republicans, voted yes to the amendment.
Warnock and Ossoff (D-GA) voted no. The senators who voted no were either Democrats or independents.
Staff for Warnock and Ossoff did not return The Georgia Star News’ repeated requests for comment Thursday.
Former NFL star running back Herschel Walker, a Republican, announced his candidacy in August to oppose Warnock in this year’s Georgia U.S. Senate race.
A Political Action Committee (PAC), 34N22, launched last month to support Walker.
34N22 spokesman Stephen Lawson told The Star News on Thursday that Warnock voted to send taxpayer money to convicted felons, even as crime and inflation skyrocket across Georgia, the state he represents.
“Unfortunately, it’s hardly surprising from someone who has called to open up the jails, attacked our law enforcement as gangsters, thugs and bullies, while pushing to eliminate cash bail and let violent criminals back out onto the street,” Lawson said.
Warnock tweeted in November that he is “the most vulnerable Senate Democrat up for reelection.”
Members of Warnock’s campaign have sent their followers several emails recently calling Georgia “the number one battleground.“
Former President Donald Trump endorsed Walker in September.
Walker, a former NFL star, is the clear favorite to win the Republican nomination in 2022, according to a poll released in November.
The former NFL player often uses social media to express right-of-center beliefs. Earlier last year, for example, Walker tweeted that elected officials best serve their time “upholding the Constitution and finding solutions to hold companies and our government accountable.” Walker also said “elected officials are sworn to office to protect the Constitution, foreign and domestic. Anyone not honoring their oath should be impeached.”
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Chris Butler is an investigative journalist at The Tennessee Star. Follow Chris on Facebook. Email tips to [email protected].
Photo “Jon Ossoff” by Jon Ossoff.
