The extended family of the accused Boston Marathon bombers received more than $100,000 in public assistance through a variety of government programs, the Boston Herald reported.
The taxpayer-funded support for Dzhokhar and Tamerlan Tsarnaev and their relatives came in the form of food stamps, Section 8 housing vouchers and stipends ending in 2012, the report said.
Dzhokhar, 19 is charged with conspiring to use a weapon of mass destruction for his alleged role in the blasts that killed three and wounded more than 260 at the Marathon on April 15. Tamerlan, 26, died days later in a confrontation with police in nearby Watertown.
It had previously been reported that the the brothers' received government aid via their parents when they were younger and that Tamerlan, his wife and their daughter were enrolled in assistance programs last year. But the total value of all of the subsidies had not been revealed.
The history of the family's use of assistance programs came to light in a package of 500 documents about the Tsarnaevs handed over to a panel in the Massachusetts legislature.
State lawmakers aim to find out if anyone in the family improperly obtained government benefits.
"Clearly, if our public tax dollars were in any way used to help support the horrific, horrific events that occurred here, it is something that would appall all of us," David Linsky, chairman of the House Committee on Post Audit and Oversight said yesterday.
Neither of the brothers was enrolled in any welfare program at the time of the attack, the Associated Press reported.
Tamerlan Tsarnaev, his wife Katherine Russell and their daughter became inelegible for welfare last year when their income rose too high.