Boston Marathon Bomber Received Hundreds In COVID-19 Relief Payments

Boston Marathon bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev received $1,400 in COVID-19 relief funds during the latest 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 that the bomber received roughly $20,000 from other sources. The money may assist him in buying goods and products for use in prison, including clothing and food.

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

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

The prosecutors also allege that Tsarnaev did not properly notify authorities that he received some of these donations.

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

Tsarnaev was initially sentenced to death for his role in the 2013 attack on the Boston Marathon with his older brother Tamerlan which killed three people and injured more than 260 others. Tamerlan was killed by authorities during the ensuing 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.