The Department on Justice on Tuesday asked a federal appeals court to throw out the seditious conspiracy convictions of Proud Boys and Oath Keepers leaders who were sentenced to prison terms for leading members of the groups in an attack on the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.
Trump commuted the prison sentences of several Proud Boys and Oath Keepers leaders in January 2025 in a sweeping act of clemency for all 1,500-plus defendants charged in the events at the Capitol related to that day.
The request by the DOJ would go a step further and erase all the convictions for the groups' leaders, including Oath Keepers founder Stewart Rhodes, who didn't receive pardons.
In court filings, prosecutors asked the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit to vacate the convictions so that the government can permanently dismiss the indictments.
"The government's motion to vacate in this case is consistent with its practice of moving the Supreme Court to vacate convictions in cases where the government has decided in its prosecutorial discretion that dismissal of a criminal case is in the interests of justice — motions that the Supreme Court routinely grants," prosecutors wrote in a court filing signed by U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro.
Juries in Washington, D.C., convicted Proud Boys and Oath Keepers leaders of orchestrating violent plots to stop the peaceful transfer of power after Trump's 2020 election loss to Joe Biden.
The department's dismissal request also includes the convictions of Oath Keepers members Kelly Meggs, Kenneth Harrelson and Jessica Watkins and Proud Boys members Ethan Nordean, Joseph Biggs, Zachary Rehl and Dominic Pezzola.
Other group members, including former Proud Boys national chairman Enrique Tarrio, received pardons from Trump on the first day of his second term in the White House.
Rhodes was sentenced to 18 years in prison after he and several lieutenants were convicted in one of the most consequential cases arising from the events of Jan. 6.
Prosecutors said Rhodes and his followers stockpiled guns for possible use by "quick reaction force" teams at a Virginia hotel, but they never deployed the weapons.
Nordean's attorney, Nicholas Smith, said they are grateful to the DOJ for its "wise decision" in seeking dismissal of the convictions.
"We don't want a precedent that says that any physical confrontation between protesters and law enforcement means a crime akin to treason, such as seditious conspiracy," Smith said.
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