A federal judge on Friday wiped away the convictions of four prominent Proud Boys leaders, marking another major legal reversal in the ongoing fallout from President Donald Trump's sweeping pardons of Capitol riot participants.
U.S. District Judge Timothy J. Kelly granted the Justice Department's motion to dismiss charges against Ethan Nordean, Joseph Biggs, Zachary Rehl and Dominic Pezzola, making the dismissals permanent with prejudice. The four men had been convicted in 2023 on multiple felony counts, with three of them facing seditious conspiracy charges.
Kelly, appointed to the bench by Trump in 2017, made clear he harbored doubts about the administration's reversal. "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, no one should mistake the Court's granting of the Government's motion for its agreement with those decisions," he wrote.
The judge acknowledged the legal reality confronting him. With the Justice Department unwilling to pursue the case, Kelly explained he had no practical option but to grant the motion. "Denying the motion would not somehow revive the convictions that the Court of Appeals vacated," he wrote. "Nor would denying it mean a retrial would follow, because the Court lacks the authority to compel the Executive to pursue a prosecution."
On Trump's return to office in January, he issued approximately 1,500 full pardons to individuals convicted in connection with the Capitol attack, while commuting sentences for 14 others. Nordean, Biggs, Rehl and Pezzola fell into the commutation category, with their sentences reduced to time served rather than dismissed by courts at that time.
The four men had received substantial sentences. Nordean, described by prosecutors as having "played a central role in unleashing the violence and destruction," drew 18 years in prison. Biggs, serving "as an instigator and leader," received 17 years. Rehl got 15 years, while Pezzola, captured on video smashing a Capitol window, received the lightest sentence at 10 years.
The Justice Department's April request to dismiss cited "years-long, Biden-era weaponized prosecutions." Kelly observed there was "little mystery" behind the reversal, noting Trump's publicly stated intentions regarding clemency for Capitol rioters.
Rehl responded to the dismissal on social media Friday, writing "Finally, it's ALL OVER! January 6th can now be a thing of the past for me!" Enrique Tarrio, who faced trial alongside the four men, celebrated on X, declaring the "seditious conspiracy hoax and the whole rigged indictment" had been vacated, adding a photo of himself with Trump captioned "LOVE YA BOSS MAN!"
The dismissals continue Trump's broader push to reshape the legal consequences of the Jan. 6 riot. Last month, a federal judge blocked the administration's "anti-weaponization fund," designed to compensate those the president claims were unfairly prosecuted, from becoming operational.
Author Sarah Mitchell: "The judge's reluctant language suggests the courts can only follow the executive's lead when prosecutors abandon their case, but that doesn't mean they have to pretend the strategy makes sense."
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