The Justice Department moved to dismiss the seditious conspiracy convictions of Proud Boys and Oath Keepers members Tuesday, undoing one of many Biden administration’s most celebrated victories in opposition to those that it stated impressed the January 6, 2021, assault on American democracy.
If a choose approves the dismissals, it could erase probably the most critical convictions from the sprawling investigation of the US Capitol riot, one of many largest federal investigations in US historical past.
President Donald Trump’s has lengthy lambasted the January 6 prosecutions as an injustice in opposition to his supporters, even referring to these in jail as “hostages.”
On his first day in workplace, Trump issued pardons to over 1,000 people convicted within the assault — each defendant aside from 14 folks, every of whom had their sentences commuted. One of these folks was pardoned in March 2025, and the division now says twelve others — eight members and associates of the Oath Keepers and 4 from the Proud Boys — ought to have their convictions dismissed.
Dismissing the convictions would even be a serious blow to the Biden Justice Department, which throughout three trials had argued that the assault on the US Capitol was greater than only a political protest that acquired uncontrolled, however somewhat a violent assault on democracy and an effort to hold Joe Biden out of the Oval Office by any means vital.
The defendants whose convictions could also be dismissed are Oath Keepers chief Stewart Rhodes and associates Kelly Meggs, Kenneth Harrelson, Jessica Watkins, Roberto Minuta, Edward Vallejo, Joseph Hackett, and David Moerschel; and Proud Boys associates Ethan Nordean, Joseph Biggs, Zachary Rehl and Dominic Pezzola.
A spokesperson for US Attorney for DC Jeanine Pirro’s workplace declined to remark.
This story is creating and might be up to date.