—
A federal judge has dismissed the landmark seditious conspiracy case against four far-right Proud Boys members, erasing convictions that represented some of the government’s most serious prosecutions stemming from the January 6, 2021, Capitol attack.
U.S. District Judge Timothy Kelly, a Trump appointee, granted the Justice Department’s motion late Friday to dismiss charges against Ethan Nordean, Joseph Biggs, Zachary Rehl and Dominic Pezzola with prejudice, meaning the case is permanently closed and cannot be revived by future administrations. The ruling came just months after Trump’s sweeping clemency actions targeting all January 6 defendants.
The case originally represented one of the Justice Department’s signature prosecutions. In May 2023, a jury convicted all five defendants tried together, including former Proud Boys national chairman Enrique Tarrio, of felonies arising from their central roles in organizing and executing violence at the Capitol. All defendants except Pezzola were convicted of seditious conspiracy, a rare Civil War-era charge accusing them of plotting to oppose the authority of the government by force.
Sentencing came that September. Nordean received 18 years in federal prison, the longest sentence among the four being dismissed, and tied for the longest of any January 6 defendant. Biggs was sentenced to 17 years, Rehl to 15 years, and Pezzola to 10 years. Prosecutors portrayed these men as leaders who orchestrated violence. Nordean was described as having “played a central role in unleashing the violence and destruction at the U.S. Capitol,” while Biggs served as “an instigator and leader.” Pezzola became particularly recognizable after video showed him smashing a Capitol window with a stolen police riot shield, which rioters then used to enter the building.
On January 20, 2025, Trump’s first day back in office, he issued sweeping clemency that fundamentally altered the legal landscape for January 6 defendants. Trump granted approximately 1,500 full pardons to people convicted of Capitol riot offenses. For 14 others, including Nordean, Biggs, Rehl and Pezzola, Trump commuted their sentences to time served rather than issuing outright pardons. Tarrio, who had been sentenced to 22 years, received a full pardon from Trump.
In April 2026, the Justice Department formally requested that the convictions of the four men be vacated and the case dismissed. The department characterized the prosecutions as “years-long, Biden-era weaponized prosecutions.” An appeals court agreed in May, vacating the convictions and returning the case to Kelly for dismissal.
Kelly’s Friday decision was a procedural necessity at that point. The judge acknowledged he had limited authority once prosecutors declined to pursue the case. In his written order, Kelly stated there was “little mystery” about the government’s reasoning, noting that “President Trump’s views about the prosecution of those who attacked the U.S. Capitol on January 6—whether those views are based on fact or fiction—are well known, as is his intention to extend clemency to them through the Executive Order.”
However, Kelly made clear his displeasure with the outcome. He stressed that granting the dismissal motion “should not be mistaken as an endorsement of the Department of Justice’s decision to abandon the case.” He noted that the prosecutions began during Trump’s first term, not under the Biden administration, and that the government had already secured serious convictions before abandoning the prosecution.
“Because the decisions to issue the Executive Order and to abandon this prosecution—even after the Government secured convictions for serious crimes relating to the attack on the Capitol on January 6—are solely the Executive’s,” the judge wrote, “no one should mistake the Court’s granting of the Government’s motion for its agreement with those decisions.”
The dismissal closes out one of the Justice Department’s most significant investigations into January 6. During the trial, prosecutors presented evidence showing the Proud Boys operated as an organized fighting force that moved together through Capitol grounds and breaches. Messages and communications indicated leadership coordination before and during the attack. Yet judges in the federal system have limited power to compel prosecutors to pursue cases, particularly when backed by presidential clemency orders.
Former Proud Boys leader Enrique Tarrio celebrated the ruling on social media. “The seditious conspiracy hoax and the whole rigged indictment against me, Ethan Nordean, Joe Biggs, Zach Rehl, and Dominic Pezzola has been VACATED!!” he posted on X, adding “Trump dropped the pardons and now the rest is crumbling. Justice is SERVED!”
The dismissal represents a dramatic reversal of one of the most consequential prosecutions from the Capitol riot investigation. More than a dozen defendants were ultimately convicted of seditious conspiracy across multiple trials, making it one of the rarest prosecutions in federal criminal law. The conviction of Proud Boys leaders was viewed as a crucial legal victory demonstrating that organizers of the Capitol attack could face serious consequences.
A separate seditious conspiracy case involving the Oath Keepers, another extremist group, remains pending before a different judge who has not yet ruled on whether to dismiss similar charges in light of Trump’s clemency actions. That case represents the last major remaining seditious conspiracy prosecution from January 6 still in the courts.