A federal judge on Tuesday dismissed the seditious conspiracy case against Oath Keepers members at the Trump administration's request, while expressing concern about efforts to rewrite the history of the January 6 Capitol attack.
U.S. District Judge Amit Mehta, who presided over the Oath Keepers trials, criticized the Department of Justice's move to vacate convictions. The judge wrote that the government "asks to absolve these Defendants of crimes against the United States itself," But said he had no choice but to grant the request.
"This is the last of the prosecutions seeking to hold accountable those responsible for the events of Jan. 6. That book is now closed," Mehta wrote.
The dismissal marks the conclusion of Jan. 6 cases following Republican President Donald Trump's sweeping pardons and commutations last year. The Biden administration's Department of Justice had moved in April to vacate the convictions of Oath Keepers founder Stewart Rhodes and others in the seditious conspiracy case who had their sentences commuted but did not receive pardons.
Mehta stated in his ruling that the action "diminishes the gravity of that day, denigrates the work of the prosecutors and law enforcement officers who secured these convictions, and excuses criminal acts that caused a centuries-long pillar of our democracy, the peaceful transfer of presidential power, to buckle. The court cannot write a different ending."
Juries in the nation's capital had convicted Oath Keepers leaders and Proud Boys members of orchestrating violent plots to stop the peaceful transfer of power after Trump's 2020 election loss. Rhodes was released from prison in January 2025 after Trump commuted his 18-year sentence. Rhodes, who did not enter the Capitol on January 6, has denied any wrongdoing.
Trump has argued the Jan. 6 defendants were treated unfairly, saying the pardons were intended to end "a grave national injustice that has been perpetrated upon the American people." He also ordered the attorney general to seek dismissal of roughly 450 pending cases stemming from the Justice Department's largest investigation.
