“It is hard to see how any other course … could make practical sense. Denying the motion would not somehow revive the convictions that the Court of Appeals vacated.”
A federal judge on Friday granted a Justice Department motion to dismiss seditious conspiracy convictions against leaders of the Proud Boys who were present at the Capitol on January 6, 2021.
In a seven-page memorandum, US District Judge Timothy Kelly highlighted that Proud Boy leaders Ethan Nordean, Joseph Biggs, and Zachary Rehl had been previously convicted of crimes, including seditious conspiracy, for their roles in the riots that took place on January 6. A fourth member, Dominic Pezzola, was convicted of assaulting an officer and “breaking a Capitol window, thereby helping to create the first entry point through which hundreds of rioters streamed into the building.”
In 2023, Nordean, Biggs, and Rehl were sentenced to lengthy prison terms, only for their sentences to be commuted by President Donald Trump in January 2025 as part of a sweeping grant of pardons for roughly 1,500 people charged or convicted in connection with January 6.
Although the commutations ended their prison terms, their convictions initially remained in effect. The DOJ requested in April that the US Court of Appeals vacate the convictions, and the appeals court approved the request in May, according to a report by The Guardian.
On Friday, Judge Kelly granted the motion as “it is hard to see how any other course ... could make practical sense. Denying the motion would not somehow revive the convictions that the Court of Appeals vacated.”
“[T]here is little mystery about why the Government is moving to dismiss this case, or whether dismissal is in fact what the Executive seeks,” Kelly commented. “President Trump’s views about the prosecution of those who attacked the US Capitol on January 6 – whether those views are based on fact or fiction – are well known, as is his intention to extend clemency to them.”
“As the Court has said many times, the attack on the Capitol on January 6, 2021 was a perilous event,” Kelly continued. “It was an attack on people, including police officers, many of whom were injured. It was an attack on a coordinate branch of government – Congress – that the Founders saw fit to give a place of primacy in Article I of the Constitution. And it was an attack on the Constitution’s mechanism to facilitate the peaceful transfer of power from one president to the next, what President Reagan called ‘nothing less than a miracle.’”
In a post on X, former Proud Boys Chairman Enrique Tarrio celebrated the decision, saying, “Trump dropped the pardons and now the rest is crumbling. Justice is SERVED! Proud Boys don't lose. We WIN. This is OUR victory. THANK YOU PRESIDENT DONALD J TRUMP and all of you that fought for us!"
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