Justice Department seeks to erase Jan. 6 seditious conspiracy convictions of Proud Boys leaders

The Trump Justice Department asked a federal appeals court Tuesday to vacate the seditious conspiracy convictions of four former Proud Boys leaders and permanently dismiss the charges, a move that goes well beyond the sentence commutations President Trump issued on his first day back in office. The filing, submitted to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit, targets the convictions of Ethan Nordean, Joseph Biggs, Zachary Rehl, and Dominic Pezzola, and asks the court to send the case back to the trial level so prosecutors can formally end it with prejudice.

Dismissal with prejudice means the government could never bring the same charges again. If the D.C. Circuit grants the request, the convictions would not merely be softened or set aside, they would be wiped from the record entirely.

That distinction matters. When Trump commuted the defendants' sentences on January 20, 2025, he reduced their punishment to time served and freed them from prison. But commutation is not a pardon. The convictions remained on the books, carrying legal and practical consequences for the men involved. Tuesday's filing seeks to finish what the commutations started.

What the DOJ filing says

Federal prosecutors framed the motion as a straightforward exercise of prosecutorial discretion. In the consolidated appeal, they argued that vacating the convictions would allow the Justice Department to end the case under Rule 48(a) of the Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure, the standard mechanism for government-initiated dismissals. The filing noted that defense attorneys for the four men, along with one self-represented defendant, do not oppose the request.

Prosecutors also pointed to Supreme Court and appellate precedent they said supports the move, telling the court that dismissal serves the interests of justice and aligns with the executive branch's current position on the Jan. 6 prosecutions. As the Daily Caller reported, the government described the filing as part of a broader reassessment of similarly situated cases.

A court filing signed by U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro spelled out the legal reasoning. The Washington Examiner reported that prosecutors wrote in each motion:

"The government respectfully requests that... the Court vacate [the] convictions... and remand so that the government may move to dismiss the indictment with prejudice."

A separate passage from the filing, cited across multiple outlets, laid out the broader principle. Prosecutors wrote:

"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."

Bigger than the Proud Boys

The Proud Boys motion is not an isolated action. AP News reported that the Justice Department simultaneously moved to vacate seditious conspiracy convictions against leaders of the Oath Keepers, including founder Stewart Rhodes. Rhodes did not receive a pardon when Trump issued his sweeping clemency order in January 2025, making the vacatur motion his most direct path to a clean record.

The scope of the administration's Jan. 6 legal reversal has expanded in stages. Trump's initial clemency action in January 2025 affected more than 1,500 defendants, as Newsmax detailed, covering a wide range of charges and sentences. Some defendants received full pardons. Others, including several Proud Boys and Oath Keepers leaders, had their sentences commuted to time served, freeing them from prison while leaving their convictions intact.

Tuesday's filings represent the next step. By asking the appellate court to erase the convictions themselves, the DOJ is moving to undo the legal legacy of the Biden-era prosecutions at their most serious tier. Seditious conspiracy, a charge that carries up to twenty years in prison, was the heaviest weapon prosecutors deployed against Jan. 6 defendants, and its use was controversial from the start.

The administration's willingness to pursue vacatur rather than simply relying on existing clemency underscores a broader pattern. The Justice Department under Trump has not merely softened the Jan. 6 cases; it has moved to dismantle them. That posture reflects the view, held by many conservatives, that the Biden DOJ's Jan. 6 prosecutions were politically motivated and disproportionate, a position the current executive branch is now expressing through formal legal filings rather than just rhetoric.

The legal mechanism

Rule 48(a) of the Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure gives the government the right to dismiss an indictment or information with leave of the court. The rule is well-established but not automatic, a judge must approve the dismissal. Prosecutors in this case appear to be arguing that the appellate court should first vacate the convictions, then remand to the trial court, where the government would formally invoke Rule 48(a) to close the case for good.

The "with prejudice" designation is the key detail. A dismissal without prejudice would leave the door open for future prosecution. Dismissal with prejudice slams it shut. For Nordean, Biggs, Rehl, and Pezzola, that would mean no risk of the charges ever returning, regardless of who occupies the White House next.

The D.C. Circuit has not yet ruled on the request. Whether the court grants it, or whether any judges push back, remains an open question. But the fact that all defendants either consented or did not oppose the motion removes one potential obstacle. The fight, if there is one, would likely come from the bench itself, or from outside critics who view the move as an abuse of prosecutorial discretion.

Context and consequences

The four Proud Boys leaders named in Tuesday's filing were convicted of seditious conspiracy for their roles in leading supporters to the U.S. Capitol on January 6. The Biden Justice Department treated these cases as among the most consequential of the entire Jan. 6 prosecution effort, securing convictions that carried significant prison time. The commutations freed the men. The vacatur motion, if granted, would erase the convictions as though they never happened.

That has implications beyond the individual defendants. Canada officially designated the Proud Boys as a terrorist organization, a classification that allows Canadian authorities to freeze assets linked to the group, restrict financial services, and bar members from entering the country. Whether the vacatur of U.S. convictions would affect that foreign designation is unclear, but it would remove one of the legal foundations that critics of the group have pointed to.

The move also fits into a broader clash between the Trump administration and its opponents over executive power and legal accountability. Democrats have repeatedly turned to the courts to challenge Trump's executive actions, and the Jan. 6 vacatur motions are likely to intensify that pattern.

Just The News noted that the filings represent an expansion of the administration's legal posture, from clemency to outright erasure of convictions. That trajectory has drawn sharp reactions on both sides, with supporters calling it a long-overdue correction and opponents calling it an affront to accountability.

Meanwhile, recent leadership changes at the Justice Department have signaled the administration's intent to reshape the institution's priorities from the top down.

The seditious conspiracy statute, 18 U.S.C. § 2384, requires proof that defendants conspired to overthrow the government or oppose its authority by force. It is rarely charged and even more rarely results in conviction. The Biden DOJ's decision to pursue it against Jan. 6 defendants was itself a departure from historical norms. The Trump DOJ's decision to seek vacatur of those same convictions is another departure, in the opposite direction.

For the four Proud Boys leaders, the practical difference between a commutation and a vacated conviction is significant. A commutation leaves the felony on a person's record, affecting employment, civil rights, and public reputation. Vacatur restores the legal status quo ante, as if the conviction never existed.

The Breitbart report on the filing emphasized that the motion covers not only the Proud Boys defendants but also Oath Keepers members, broadening the reach of the administration's legal reversal across the two groups most heavily targeted by the prior DOJ.

Whether the D.C. Circuit will grant the motions without resistance is the next question. Courts generally defer to the executive branch on prosecutorial discretion, but the political weight of these cases is extraordinary. Senate Democrats have already shown a willingness to obstruct Trump-aligned priorities on other fronts, and the Jan. 6 vacatur motions will likely become another flashpoint.

What comes next

The ball is now with the D.C. Circuit. If the court vacates the convictions and remands, prosecutors would then file Rule 48(a) motions at the trial level to dismiss the indictments with prejudice. The entire process could unfold relatively quickly if no judge objects.

Several open questions remain. The exact precedents prosecutors cited have not been publicly detailed. Whether additional defendants beyond the four named Proud Boys leaders and the Oath Keepers members are included in the broader motion is not fully clear. And the political reaction from Democrats, who have treated the Jan. 6 prosecutions as a defining moral cause, is only beginning to take shape.

The Biden DOJ built its Jan. 6 legacy on these convictions. The Trump DOJ is now asking a court to tear that legacy down, case by case, filing by filing. Prosecutorial discretion cuts both ways, and right now, it cuts in a direction the previous administration never imagined.