'Looking at me like I'm crazy!' MAGA pundit's flagrantly false claim draws baffled stares

A conservative commentator drew baffled stares from his fellow panelists on CNN after making a flagrantly false claim to justify possible government compensation for Jan. 6 rioters.

The Department of Justice established a $1.776 billion fund to repay individuals who claim to have been politically targeted by previous administrations, and anti-trans activist Terry Schilling told "CNN This Morning" that Trump allies had every right to payouts for prosecutions that resulted in convictions and guilty pleas.

"I don't actually knowwhat the real facts are here, but the government wasweaponized against very innocentpeople," Schilling said. "Michael Caputo had tomove his family from New York to Florida. He has little girls.You had Mike Flynn had to sellhis home and mortgage."

Host Audie Cornish asked whether James Comey deserved compensation for his targeting by the Trump administration, which Schilling deflected, and Democratic strategist Antjuan Seawright denounced the fund as corrupt.

"Not only isthis corrupt, it'sunconstitutional because Congress controls the purse," Seawright said. "Sothis MAGA slush fund was set totake taxpayers dollars and giveto white nationalists and whitesupremacists who stormed the Capitol on Jan. 6. That's number one. Number two, the fact that youhave a president who's willingto exempt his family for therest of their lives from beingaudited for tax purposes, whenthis is the same man who triedto act as if people werebehaving as if they were abovethe law. That's corrupt andit's wrong, and you would notbe sitting here nodding yes tothis if this was Joe Biden, Barack Obama or President Kamala Harris."

Schilling fired back with a blatant falsehood.

"So what I want to say is thatthis government held thousandsof people without charges inprison for years," Schilling claimed. "That needs tobe recompensed. These peoplewere these there were thousandsof Jan. 6 that were heldwithout charges, without theability to even contest it.You're looking at me like I'mcrazy."

Schilling had noticed the other panelists looking confused, and for good reason – none of the Jan. 6 defendants were held without charges, but many of them were formally charged with specific federal crimes and then held without bond while awaiting trial.

"That is notsomething I've heard," Cornish replied. "I knowthere were people who went tojail because they were convicted."

"There were thousands ofpeople that were put in jailwithout charges and were heldthere," Schilling insisted, "and those people need tobe recompensed."

Cornish stepped in to fact check his doubled-down claim.

"Those people, you know, becauseI'm thinking about what you'resaying, were in pretrialdetention," she said. "They were goingthrough the legal process,which, by the way, is not whatthis weaponization fund does."