Judge dismisses Proud Boys Jan. 6 sedition case after DOJ ends it

A federal judge in Washington dismissed the Proud Boys Jan. 6 sedition case with prejudice after saying he had no authority to force the executive branch to keep prosecuting it. U.S. District Judge Timothy J. Kelly, appointed by President Donald Trump in 2017, granted the Justice Department’s motion on July 10 and made clear that his ruling did not mean he agreed with the administration’s decision to abandon the case.

The ruling erased the seditious conspiracy convictions of Ethan Nordean, Joseph Biggs, Zachary Rehl and Dominic Pezzola, ending a six-month trial that had produced one of the Justice Department’s most significant Jan. 6 prosecutions in 2023. Prosecutors said the Proud Boys leaders functioned as a “fighting force” in the assault on the Capitol, and they said Pezzola shattered a Senate-wing window with a stolen police riot shield, helping ignite the breach.

Kelly’s order closed a major chapter in the legal reckoning over the Jan. 6, 2021 attack, which forced Congress to flee and left more than 100 police officers injured. Because the dismissal was with prejudice, the charges cannot be revived by a future Justice Department, leaving no path for retrial in a case that had already stood as a signature victory for the Biden-era prosecution of the attack.

The collapse of the case also fits into a broader reversal under Trump. On his first day back in office in January 2025, Trump issued roughly 1,500 full pardons and 14 commutations for people convicted in connection with the riot, including commutations for Nordean, Biggs, Rehl and Pezzola, whose prison terms had ranged from 10 to 18 years. Trump also pardoned Enrique Tarrio, the Proud Boys’ national chair, who had been sentenced to 22 years in prison, the longest punishment tied to the attack.

In April 2026, the Justice Department asked appellate courts to wipe out the Proud Boys and Oath Keepers sedition convictions, calling the effort an exercise of prosecutorial discretion and branding the earlier cases “Biden-era weaponized prosecutions.” Kelly’s dismissal followed that request and removed one of the last major lingering cases from the Capitol attack, which had been used to test how far the Justice Department could go in pursuing organized efforts to overturn the 2020 election and block the peaceful transfer of power.