Justice Department lawyers asked a federal appeals court to throw out seditious conspiracy convictions of Proud Boys and Oath Keepers leaders tied to the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol, according to a motion filed on Tuesday. Prosecutors said the court should vacate the convictions so the government can permanently dismiss the underlying indictments.
The filing comes after President Donald Trump commuted prison sentences for several Proud Boys and Oath Keepers leaders in January as part of a clemency action that applied to all 1,500-plus defendants charged in the Capitol attack. Prosecutors said they want to go further than the commutations for leaders who were not covered in the earlier pardons and clemency steps, according to the AP report.
In the motion, prosecutors asked the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit to vacate the convictions, framing the request as consistent with the government’s practice in other cases. The DOJ said the approach aligns with the government’s practice of moving the Supreme Court to vacate convictions when it decides that dismissal is in the interests of justice, and it said such motions are “routinely grants,” in a passage cited in the AP report.
The appeal request targets convictions arising from the D.C. area trial in which juries convicted Proud Boys and Oath Keepers leaders of orchestrating violent plots intended to stop the peaceful transfer of power after then-President Trump lost the 2020 election to President Joe Biden. In the filing described by the AP, prosecutors sought to erase the convictions for group leaders including Oath Keepers founder Stewart Rhodes.
Prosecutors’ request includes the convictions of Oath Keepers members Kelly Meggs, Kenneth Harrelson and Jessica Watkins, as well as Proud Boys members Ethan Nordean, Joseph Biggs, Zachary Rehl, and Dominic Pezzola, according to the reporting. The motion also reflects that other extremist group members, including former Proud Boys national chairman Enrique Tarrio, received pardons from Trump on the first day of his second term, the AP said.
Rhodes was sentenced to 18 years in prison after his conviction, according to the AP report. Prosecutors said Rhodes and his followers stockpiled guns for possible use by “quick reaction force” teams at a Virginia hotel during the time leading up to Jan. 6, but that they never deployed the weapons.
Defense counsel for several of the individuals named in the motion said they welcomed the government’s request. In the AP report, attorney Nicholas Smith, who represented Nordean, said he and his client were grateful to the Justice Department for what he called its “wise decision” to seek dismissal.
Smith said the case should not create a broader precedent equating confrontation between protesters and law enforcement with treason-like seditious conspiracy. Michael Fanone, a former Metropolitan Police officer who was dragged into the Capitol attack and suffered a heart attack after a rioter shocked him with a stun gun, told the AP he was disappointed but not surprised by what he called the latest milestone in dismantling Capitol riot prosecutions.
“I would remind Americans that these were traitors to this country,” Fanone said. “They planned, incited and carried out an insurrection.”