US Justice Department asks appeals court to overturn treason charges against Proud Boys, Oath Keepers
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The US Justice Department on Tuesday asked an appeals court to overturn the treason charges against the leaders of the Proud Boys and Oath Keepers who were sentenced to prison for leading members of the extremist group to attack the US Capitol to keep President Donald Trump in office five years ago.
Trump commuted the prison sentences of several leaders of the Proud Boys and Oath Keepers in January 2025 in a major gesture of clemency for all 1,500-plus defendants charged in the January 6, 2021 attack.
The Justice Department’s request would go further and overturn the convictions of extremist group leaders, including Oath Keepers founder Stewart Rhodes.
In court filings, prosecutors are asking the US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit to dismiss the charges so that the government can permanently dismiss those charges.
“The government’s suggestion that he withdraw from this case is in line with his tendency to move [U.S.] “The Supreme Court will dismiss cases when the government determines in the prosecutor’s discretion that the dismissal of the criminal case is in the best interest of justice — propositions the Supreme Court routinely allows,” prosecutors wrote in a court filing signed by U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro.
A jury in Washington, DC, convicted the leaders of the Proud Boys and the Oath Keepers of organizing violent plots to stop a peaceful transfer of power after Trump lost the 2020 election to Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden.
A dramatic turnaround from the previous administration
The move to stay the convictions represents a dramatic reversal for the Biden administration, which hailed the guilty verdicts as a key victory in its effort to hold accountable those responsible for what prosecutors describe as an attack on the heart of American democracy.
It is part of the Trump administration’s efforts to continue to rewrite the history of the January 6 attacks and downplay the violence carried out by a crowd of Trump supporters that left more than 100 police officers injured.
The petition to dismiss the department includes the convictions of Oath Keepers members Kelly Meggs, Kenneth Harrelson and Jessica Watkins and Proud Boys members Ethan Nordean, Joseph Biggs, Zachary Rehl and Dominic Pezzola.
Some members of the extremist group, including former Proud Boys national chairman Enrique Tarrio, received a pardon from Trump on the first day of his second term in the White House.
Rhodes was sentenced to 18 years in prison after he and several lieutenants were convicted in one of the crimes stemming from the January 6 attack on the Capitol by a mob of Trump supporters.
Prosecutors said Rhodes and his followers collected guns for use by gangs at a Virginia hotel, but never used the weapons.
Nordian’s lawyer, Nicholas Smith, said they are grateful to the Department of Justice for the “reasonable decision” to seek the withdrawal of these charges.
“We don’t want there to be a precedent that any confrontation between protesters and law enforcement means a crime like treason, like plotting to treason,” said Smith.
