Donald Trump’s Department of Justice wants to throw out the cases against members of the Proud Boys and Oath Keepers who were convicted of treason-related charges and other cries for their roles in the January 6 attack on the Capitol.
On his first day in office, the president issued “full pardons” for hundreds of people criminally charged in connection with the mob’s assault, and he commuted the sentences of 14 members of the two far-right groups to time served.
On Tuesday, U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro filed motions in Washington, D.C. to vacate the remaining convictions, effectively finishing off what the president started with his “blanket pardons and commutations” last January.
The Justice Department is asking to throw out convictions against former Oath Keepers leader Stewart Rhodes as well as militia members Kelly Meggs, Kenneth Harrelson and Jessica Watkins and Proud Boys members Ethan Nordean, Joseph Biggs, Zachary Rehl and Dominic Pezzola.
More than 1,500 people were criminally charged in connection with the Capitol riots, fueled by Trump’s bogus narrative that the 2020 presidential election was rigged and stolen from him.
Hundreds of defendants pleaded guilty to charges in connection with the attack, and more than 200 others were found guilty at trial, including 10 defendants who were found guilty of treason-related charges including seditious conspiracy.
In court filings, Pirro and federal prosecutors asked the U.S. Court of Appeals in D.C. to vacate the erase their convictions so that the Justice Department can formally dismiss the indictments against them.
“In the Executive Branch’s view, it is not in the interests of justice to continue to prosecute this case or the cases of other, similarly situated defendants,” according to the motions.
Juries in the nation’s capital convicted members of the Proud Boys and Oath Keepers after evidence showed them orchestrating a violent plot to stop the peaceful transfer of power during a joint session of Congress convening to affirm Trump’s loss to Joe Biden.
Rhode was convicted of seditious conspiracy and sentenced to 18 years in prison after federal prosecutors argued that he committed an act of terrorism by conspiring to commit treason in what became a violent attempt to overturn the results of an American election.
Rhodes founded his far-right anti-government militia group in 2009 and claimed thousands of members across the country prepared for armed civil war in defense of what they perceived as threats to the Constitution.
Rhodes and his allies spent weeks discussing a violent response to the 2020 election on encrypted messaging apps, then organized a weapons and supply cache at a nearby hotel before joining the mob.
After several members breached the Capitol on January 6, 2021, shouting “this is our f*****g house” and “we took the f*****g Capitol,” Rhodes hailed them as “patriots.” He told an ally that his only regret that day was that the group wasn’t armed. Rhodes did not enter the building.
Days later, Rhodes typed a message intended for then-President Trump, calling on him to “save the republic” or “die in prison.”
That message was ultimately never delivered, but it echoed another message published on the Oath Keepers website weeks earlier, urging Trump to invoke the Insurrection Act and deputize Rhodes and the Oath Keepers to take up arms. “It’s better to wage it with you as Commander-in-Chief than to have you comply with a fraudulent election, leave office, and leave the White House in the hands of illegitimate usurpers and Chinese puppets,” Rhodes wrote at the time.
He followed up with another message demanding that Trump deliver a “crushing blow” to his enemies “while they sleep, wrapped in their arrogance.”
Rhodes also instructed his allies to “get gear squared away and ready to fight,” adding that “Trump has one last chance right now to stand but he will need us and our rifles too.”
This is a developing story
