Justice Department moves to dismiss Proud Boys and Oath Keepers’ seditious conspiracy convictions
By Hannah Rabinowitz, CNN
(CNN) — The Justice Department moved to dismiss the seditious conspiracy convictions of Proud Boys and Oath Keepers members Tuesday, undoing one of the Biden administration’s most celebrated victories against those who it said inspired the January 6, 2021, attack on American democracy.
If a judge approves the dismissals, it would erase the most serious convictions from the sprawling investigation of the US Capitol riot, one of the largest federal investigations in US history.
President Donald Trump has long lambasted the January 6 prosecutions as an injustice against his supporters, even referring to those in jail as “hostages.”
On his first day in office, Trump issued pardons to over 1,000 people convicted in the attack — every defendant except for 14 people, each of whom had their sentences commuted. One of those people was pardoned in March 2025; a second had his conviction dismissed this year, according to a source familiar; and the department now says the remaining 12 — eight members and associates of the Oath Keepers and four from the Proud Boys — should have their convictions dismissed.
Dismissing the convictions would also be a major blow to the Biden Justice Department, which across three trials had argued that the attack on the US Capitol was more than just a political protest that got out of control, but rather a violent attack on democracy and an effort to keep Joe Biden out of the Oval Office by any means necessary.
Xochitl Hinojosa, the former director of the DOJ’s Office of Public Affairs under Biden, said the Trump administration’s move “gave yet another nod to individuals who conspired against the United States government, stormed the Capitol on January 6th, and brutally attacked law enforcement.”
“This is a slap in the face to the American people and American democracy,” Hinojosa, who is now a CNN commentator, said in a statement.
The defendants whose convictions may be dismissed are Oath Keepers leader 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 office declined to comment.
CNN is reaching out to attorneys for the defendants.
Nick Smith, who represents Nordean, told CNN that he is “grateful” to the DOJ for moving to vacate his client’s conviction.
“It is good for everyone of all political persuasions that sedition charges are not used for protests that turn into riots,” Smith said.
After the attack in the waning days of Trump’s first administration, the Justice Department and FBI launched a nationwide manhunt to identify and arrest rioters, which quickly turned into the biggest criminal probe in US history. Prosecutors charged more than 1,580 people and secured roughly 1,270 convictions.
Trump left office just two weeks after the riot and has since repeatedly called January 6 “a day of love and peace” and claimed his supporters posed “zero threat.” His comments are belied by hundreds of video clips of Trump supporters beating police with flagpoles, batons, wooden clubs and baseball bats, deploying stun guns and chemical sprays, and engaging in hand-to-hand combat with police officers.
This story has been updated with additional reporting.
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