Justice Dept. Asks Appeals Court to Vacate Jan. 6 Seditious‑Conspiracy Convictions for Proud Boys, Oath Keepers

The Justice Department has asked a federal appeals court to erase seditious‑conspiracy convictions for some of the most prominent leaders of the Proud Boys and Oath Keepers tied to the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol, a sweeping step to carry out President Donald Trump’s clemency order and unwind centerpiece prosecutions from the prior administration.

In filings submitted April 14, 2026, to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, prosecutors moved to vacate the convictions and send the cases back to the trial court so the government can dismiss the charges with prejudice, meaning they cannot be refiled.

One such filing, an “Unopposed Motion to Vacate Convictions and to Remand for Dismissal with Prejudice” in the consolidated appeal known as Nordean et al. (No. 23‑3159), was signed by Jeanine Ferris Pirro, the U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia appointed under Trump, along with assistant U.S. attorneys in her office.

The motions invoke the president’s Proclamation No. 10887, issued Jan. 20, 2025, which commuted many Jan. 6 sentences to time served and directed the attorney general to seek dismissal with prejudice of pending Jan. 6‑related indictments. The filings say continuing to pursue the high‑profile seditious‑conspiracy cases is no longer in the interests of justice.

The government’s request covers three consolidated appeals and targets seditious‑conspiracy convictions against 12 defendants associated with the Proud Boys and Oath Keepers, far‑right groups whose members were accused of helping organize and lead the Capitol attack.

For the Oath Keepers, the defendants include founder Stewart Rhodes and members Kelly Meggs, Roberto (Roberto) Minuta, Eduardo (Edward) Vallejo, Joseph Hackett, David Moerschel, Kenneth Harrelson and Jessica Watkins. Rhodes was previously sentenced to 18 years in prison.

For the Proud Boys, the Justice Department is seeking to wipe out seditious‑conspiracy convictions for Ethan Nordean, Joseph Biggs, Zachary Rehl and Dominic Pezzola. All were convicted at trial in cases the prior administration cast as central to accountability for the effort to stop Congress from certifying Joe Biden’s 2020 election victory.

The defendants are already in the appeals process. The government’s move comes before they were required to file opening briefs challenging their convictions.

Seditious conspiracy is a serious federal charge that in these prosecutions was tied to efforts to disrupt Congress’ formal counting of Electoral College votes on Jan. 6, when a mob overwhelmed police lines, breached the Capitol and forced lawmakers to flee. Hundreds of people were charged in connection with the attack, but the Proud Boys and Oath Keepers cases stood out as the most sweeping leadership prosecutions.

Under Trump’s successor administration, the Justice Department won convictions that officials at the time described as crucial in defending democratic institutions from political violence.

The current filings mark a sharp shift. In the Nordean motion, prosecutors stress they are not asking the D.C. Circuit to affirm or reverse the convictions on the merits. Instead, they are asking the court to wipe the judgments off the books and remand the cases to the trial judge so the government can seek formal dismissal.

The motions rely on two main legal tools. First, they cite 28 U.S.C. § 2106, a statute that allows appellate courts to vacate lower‑court judgments and send cases back for further proceedings. Second, they say that once the cases return to the district court, prosecutors will move under Federal Rule of Criminal Procedure 48(a) to dismiss the indictments with prejudice, a step that would bar the government from bringing the same seditious‑conspiracy charges again.

“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,” the Nordean filing states.

The Justice Department frames the move as a straightforward exercise of executive‑branch prosecutorial discretion, now guided by Trump’s 2025 proclamation.

The Nordean motion is labeled “unopposed.” It says prosecutors consulted defense attorneys for the defendants in that appeal and that they do not object to vacating the convictions and sending the case back for dismissal. The filing also notes that similar motions are being submitted in United States v. Harrelson et al., No. 23‑3089 et al., and United States v. Minuta et al., No. 23‑3092 et al., which involve additional Oath Keepers defendants.

If the D.C. Circuit grants the motions, the practical effect would be sweeping for the 12 men and women involved. Their seditious‑conspiracy convictions would be removed from their records, and dismissals with prejudice would prevent federal prosecutors from retrying them on those same charges. Some related civil or collateral issues could continue in other forums, but the criminal cases at issue would be closed.

Defense lawyers have welcomed the shift. Nicholas D. Smith, an attorney for Proud Boys leader Nordean, said the government’s move avoids cementing an expansive interpretation of the seditious‑conspiracy statute.

“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, responding to the Justice Department’s decision, according to the Associated Press.

Others see the reversals as erasing hard‑won accountability. Michael Fanone, a former Washington, D.C., Metropolitan Police Department officer who was injured defending the Capitol on Jan. 6, condemned the effort to undo the convictions.

“I would remind Americans that these were traitors to this country. They planned, incited and carried out an insurrection,” Fanone said, also speaking to the Associated Press and reacting to the Justice Department’s new stance.

The April 14 filings follow earlier steps by the department to implement Trump’s clemency order. Prosecutors previously moved to vacate and dismiss the conviction of former Proud Boys chairman Enrique Tarrio, another high‑profile Jan. 6 defendant, under the same proclamation. Some other Jan. 6 defendants have already received commutations or pardons as a result.

For now, the cases sit with the D.C. Circuit, which must decide whether to grant the government’s requests to vacate the judgments and send the prosecutions back. If the court agrees, the Justice Department has told judges it will move swiftly in the district court to dismiss the indictments with prejudice, closing a chapter that, until now, had been among the most consequential criminal responses to the Capitol attack.