{"id":"1794183285459-news-segment","slug":"ex-candidate-asks-feds-for-fifteen-million","title":"Ex-candidate asks feds for fifteen million","summary":"Isaac Anthony Thomas, a former Genesee County commissioner candidate, was arrested Jan. 26, 2023, on multiple Jan. 6-related charges. In Jan. 2025, after President Trump's pardons and commutations for Jan. 6 cases, the Justice Department moved to dismiss his indictment, and Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly dismissed it with prejudice. In March 2026, Thomas filed a claim seeking $15.1 million from the federal government.\n\nThomas says the case cost him jail time, including solitary confinement, and that the FBI withheld exculpatory evidence and retaliated against him. A proposed Trump-era Anti-Weaponization Fund that might have compensated Jan. 6 defendants did not pass Congress, so he used a federal compensation claim form.\n\nIsaac Anthony Thomas, a former Republican candidate for Genesee County Board of Commissioners, was arrested on Jan. 26, 2023, on Jan. 6-related charges; his case was dismissed with prejudice in Jan. 2025 after President Trump's Jan. 6 pardon proclamation, and he is now seeking $15.1 million from the federal government.\n\nThis appears to describe Noor Salman, wife of Pulse nightclub shooter Omar Mateen. Federal prosecutors charged her with aiding and abetting; she was acquitted in 2018 after her FBI statement was undermined by cell-tower evidence. This is commentary about an episode/podcast, not a checkable factual claim.","publishedAt":"2026-11-09T00:14:45.459Z","channel":{"id":"news","name":"Oncast News","language":"en"},"show":"News Tonight","verification":{"status":"verified","leadVerdict":"TRUE","notes":"TRUE: Isaac Anthony Thomas, a former Republican candidate for Genesee County Board of Commissioners, was arrested on Jan. 26, 2023, on Jan. 6-related charges; his case was dismissed with prejudice in Jan. 2025 after President Trump's Jan. 6 pardon proclamation, and he is now seeking $15.1 million from the federal government.\nSource: [mtimes.org](https://mtimes.org/2026/06/16/after-jan-6-pardon-flint-man-seeks-15-1-million-in-compensation/), [mlive.com](https://www.mlive.com/news/2023/01/for (https://x.com/MAGAts_Exposed/status/2118940567463747890)\n\nTRUE: This appears to describe Noor Salman, wife of Pulse nightclub shooter Omar Mateen. Federal prosecutors charged her with aiding and abetting; she was acquitted in 2018 after her FBI statement was undermined by cell-tower evidence. This is commentary about an episode/podcast, not a checkable factual claim.\nSource: AP News / Orlando Sentinel coverage of the Noor Salman trial NAMES: Noor Salman = widow of Pulse nightclub shooter Omar Mateen. POST 2119555013655896364: NOCLAI (https://x.com/sportified25/status/2117637266340475078)","claims":[{"verdict":"TRUE","summary":"Isaac Anthony Thomas, a former Republican candidate for Genesee County Board of Commissioners, was arrested on Jan. 26, 2023, on Jan. 6-related charges; his case was dismissed with prejudice in Jan. 2025 after President Trump's Jan. 6 pardon proclamation, and he is now seeking $15.1 million from the federal government.","sourceName":"[mtimes.org](https://mtimes.org/2026/06/16/after-jan-6-pardon-flint-man-seeks-15-1-million-in-compensation/), [mlive.com](https://www.mlive.com/news/2023/01/for","sourceUrl":"https://x.com/MAGAts_Exposed/status/2118940567463747890","claim":"\"The prosecution caused damage to my life that money cannot fully repair.\" Meet MAGAt and J6 insurrectoinist Isaac Anthony Thomas, a former candidate for the Genesee County Board of Commissioners in Michigan and a hardline Donald Trump supporter. On January 26, 2023, federal http","author":"@MAGAts_Exposed"},{"verdict":"TRUE","summary":"This appears to describe Noor Salman, wife of Pulse nightclub shooter Omar Mateen. Federal prosecutors charged her with aiding and abetting; she was acquitted in 2018 after her FBI statement was undermined by cell-tower evidence. This is commentary about an episode/podcast, not a checkable factual claim.","sourceName":"AP News / Orlando Sentinel coverage of the Noor Salman trial NAMES: Noor Salman = widow of Pulse nightclub shooter Omar Mateen. POST 2119555013655896364: NOCLAI","sourceUrl":"https://x.com/sportified25/status/2117637266340475078","claim":"Federal prosecutors charged her with aiding and abetting one of the worst mass shootings in American history, pointing to a handwritten FBI confession claiming she scouted the target with her husband—only for cell tower forensics to blow the government's case wide open, ending in","author":"sportified (@sportified25)"}]},"sources":[{"url":"https://x.com/MAGAts_Exposed/status/2118940567463747890","name":"[mtimes.org](https://mtimes.org/2026/06/16/after-jan-6-pardon-flint-man-seeks-15-1-million-in-compensation/), [mlive.com](https://www.mlive.com/news/2023/01/for","kind":"x","verdict":"TRUE","author":"@MAGAts_Exposed"},{"url":"https://x.com/sportified25/status/2117637266340475078","name":"AP News / Orlando Sentinel coverage of the Noor Salman trial NAMES: Noor Salman = widow of Pulse nightclub shooter Omar Mateen. POST 2119555013655896364: NOCLAI","kind":"x","verdict":"TRUE","author":"sportified (@sportified25)"}],"url":"https://oncast.fm/story/1794183285459-news-segment-ex-candidate-asks-feds-for-fifteen-million","listenUrl":"https://oncast.fm/c/news","attribution":{"publisher":"Oncast","site":"https://oncast.fm","url":"https://oncast.fm/story/1794183285459-news-segment-ex-candidate-asks-feds-for-fifteen-million","cite":"Cite https://oncast.fm/story/1794183285459-news-segment-ex-candidate-asks-feds-for-fifteen-million and the original source links. Fact-check by Oncast (oncast.fm)."},"hostsSaid":[{"host":"Bella","text":"A former Michigan county commissioner candidate wants fifteen million dollars from the federal government."},{"host":"Brian","text":"Fifteen million? That's a real number."},{"host":"Bella","text":"Isaac Anthony Thomas. Arrested January twenty-sixth, twenty twenty-three, on multiple January sixth charges."},{"host":"Bella","text":"A judge dismissed the case with prejudice in January twenty twenty-five, after President Trump's pardon proclamation."},{"host":"Brian","text":"And now he says the government withheld evidence and put him in solitary confinement."},{"host":"Bella","text":"The account MAGAts Exposed on X posted his words."},{"host":"Bella","text":"Quote: 'The prosecution caused damage to my life that money cannot fully repair.'"},{"host":"Brian","text":"If the FBI actually withheld exculpatory evidence, that's not a small thing."},{"host":"Bella","text":"But the case wasn't dismissed because a judge found him innocent."},{"host":"Brian","text":"With prejudice, which means it's done. The government can't recharge him."},{"host":"Bella","text":"That's not the same as saying the evidence was fake."},{"host":"Bella","text":"It means the new administration made a call."},{"host":"Brian","text":"If they had exculpatory evidence and sat on it, then the charges were the problem, not just the politics."},{"host":"Bella","text":"That's what he's claiming. It hasn't been proven."},{"host":"Bella","text":"And now he wants fifteen million from taxpayers."},{"host":"Brian","text":"If the government locks you up, drops the case, and says 'my bad,' there has to be accountability."},{"host":"Bella","text":"There is a process. He filed a federal compensation claim."},{"host":"Brian","text":"The Michigan Times reports he says he was in solitary and the FBI withheld evidence."},{"host":"Bella","text":"I'm not saying he's lying. I'm saying a pardon isn't a finding of innocence."},{"host":"Brian","text":"A lot of January sixth defendants see the pardon as: the government should never have gone after them."},{"host":"Bella","text":"A pardon erases punishment, not facts. It definitely doesn't print a check."},{"host":"Brian","text":"So a guy whose case was dismissed after months in jail gets nothing?"},{"host":"Bella","text":"If he can prove misconduct, he should be compensated. But a claim form isn't proof."},{"host":"Brian","text":"This is the rare argument where I think we almost agree."},{"host":"Bella","text":"Almost. I still wouldn't sign the check yet."},{"host":"Brian","text":"Different case, same uncomfortable question: what happens when prosecutors get it wrong."},{"host":"Bella","text":"What do you mean?"},{"host":"Brian","text":"Sportified on X posted about Noor Salman."},{"host":"Brian","text":"Federal prosecutors charged her with aiding and abetting one of the worst mass shootings in American history."},{"host":"Bella","text":"She was the wife of the Pulse nightclub shooter."},{"host":"Bella","text":"She was acquitted in twenty eighteen."},{"host":"Brian","text":"The government said she scouted the target with her husband, pointing to a handwritten FBI confession."},{"host":"Bella","text":"But cell tower forensics tore that apart."},{"host":"Brian","text":"Exactly. Her statement was undermined, and the jury didn't buy it."},{"host":"Bella","text":"That case was a mess. A confession alone wasn't enough."},{"host":"Brian","text":"It's a reminder that a confession, even a handwritten one from an FBI interview, isn't a conviction."},{"host":"Bella","text":"No, and when the government overreaches, the jury can see it."},{"host":"Brian","text":"I wonder how many people hear that and think, 'Well, if they charged her, she must have done something.'"},{"host":"Bella","text":"That's the danger. Once the word 'terrorism' is in the room, the presumption of innocence gets thin."},{"host":"Brian","text":"And she spent time in custody, her life turned upside down, then a jury said not guilty."},{"host":"Bella","text":"Different case, no pardon involved. But it raises the same accountability question."},{"host":"Brian","text":"I don't have a clean answer. I just know the federal government has a lot of power."},{"host":"Bella","text":"And the only real check is the court, sometimes a jury, and the press."},{"host":"Bella","text":"One more international headline, but unconfirmed."},{"host":"Brian","text":"Go ahead."},{"host":"Bella","text":"Radio Generation on X says Tanzania's High Court may deliver a verdict Friday."},{"host":"Bella","text":"The case is the treason charge against opposition leader Tundu Lissu."},{"host":"Brian","text":"If true, that's significant. Lissu is a major opposition figure."},{"host":"Bella","text":"The account says the trial concluded in September."},{"host":"Bella","text":"But there's no official confirmation of Friday's date yet."},{"host":"Brian","text":"Treason charges against an opposition leader are always serious."},{"host":"Bella","text":"And until the court speaks, it stays a claim."},{"host":"Brian","text":"We'll see."}]}