The Trump administration filed paperwork Tuesday seeking to vacate convictions for four high-profile members of the Proud Boys, including two men sentenced to lengthy prison terms for seditious conspiracy during the Capitol riot.
The U.S. attorney's office for the District of Columbia, led by Jeanine Pirro, asked a federal appeals court to clear the records of Ethan Nordean, Joseph Biggs, Zachary Rehl and Dominic Pezzola. All four were convicted in 2023 on multiple felony charges. Nordean and Biggs faced seditious conspiracy counts, while Rehl and Pezzola did not.
Nordean received an 18-year sentence after prosecutors said he "played a central role in unleashing the violence and destruction" at the Capitol. Biggs got 17 years, with the government describing him as "an instigator and leader" during the breach. Rehl drew 15 years, and Pezzola received 10 years after being captured on video smashing a window when rioters first entered the building.
Government lawyers argued that vacating the convictions would be "in the interests of justice," writing that "it is not in the interests of justice to continue to prosecute this case or the cases of other, similarly situated defendants."
The filing targets a gap in Trump's mass clemency wave from January. When he took office, the president issued roughly 1,500 pardons for Jan. 6 defendants but granted only 14 commutations, reducing sentences to time served without dismissing convictions. The administration now seeks to eliminate those remaining convictions entirely.
Rehl posted on X that he is "beyond thrilled" by the move. "After all the fighting, it appears this chapter is finally over," he wrote. "Persistently fighting for truth and justice pays off!" Rehl had testified that he did not "recall" spraying police officers with pepper spray, despite video evidence from that day.
The practical stakes extend beyond symbolic victory. Legal experts noted that erasing convictions removes collateral consequences tied to felony records. Alexis Loeb, a former deputy in the Capitol Siege Section of the U.S. attorney's office, told NBC News that vacating convictions means defendants "won't face the collateral consequences that go with a felony conviction, such as being prohibited from owning a firearm."
Enrique Tarrio, the Proud Boys' national chairman who received a 22-year sentence for seditious conspiracy, was not mentioned in Tuesday's filing. He had already won clemency from Trump in the January round. Tarrio celebrated the motion anyway, calling it "my happiest day since the pardon that released us from the jaws of injustice."
Officials indicated similar motions would follow for members of the Oath Keepers militia group who received commutations rather than full pardons.
Since the mass clemency in January, at least three Jan. 6 defendants granted relief have faced new criminal charges. Daniel Tocci was sentenced to four years last month on child pornography charges involving an "enormous collection." Andrew Paul Johnson received a life sentence in March for child molestation, and David Daniel, who assaulted law enforcement during the riot, agreed to plead guilty in a separate case involving child exploitation of multiple victims under age 12.
Author Sarah Mitchell: "Wiping Jan. 6 convictions clean creates real consequences for gun rights and criminal records, and the subsequent arrests suggest clemency may have freed people the justice system thought belonged behind bars."
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