On April 14-15, 2026, the Department of Justice filed motions to dismiss the seditious conspiracy convictions of Oath Keepers leader Stewart Rhodes and multiple Proud Boys members — asking the D.C. Circuit to vacate their convictions with prejudice, meaning they can never be re-prosecuted for plotting to violently overthrow the government.
This goes far beyond the January 2025 mass pardons and commutations. Pardons forgive crimes; vacating convictions with prejudice erases them from the legal record entirely, as if the seditious conspiracy never happened. The 12 defendants include Rhodes, Kelly Meggs (Oath Keepers), and Ethan Nordean, Joseph Biggs, Zachary Rehl, and Dominic Pezzola (Proud Boys).
These men were convicted by juries of seditious conspiracy — plotting to use force to prevent the peaceful transfer of presidential power. The seditious conspiracy statute (18 U.S.C. 2384) is the most serious charge available for domestic insurrection. These were the first seditious conspiracy convictions in decades.
Rep. Jamie Raskin condemned the move. The DOJ under Acting AG Todd Blanche — Trump's former personal defense attorney — is now using its authority to erase the convictions of people who tried to keep Trump in power by force.
See also: jan6-mass-pardons (original clemency), jan6-pardon-child-sex-abuse (Johnson), jan6-pardon-daniel-child-exploitation-plea (Daniel)
Update (October 14, 2026): the D.C. Circuit granted the department's request to vacate the Oath Keepers defendants' convictions on May 21, 2026, and the next day U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro asked Judge Amit Mehta to drop the charges, arguing new trials would “needlessly consume scarce prosecutorial and judicial resources and would not advance the efficient administration of justice,” USA Today reported. On August 4, Mehta dismissed the indictment, calling the department's harassment rationale “strange” but writing that “The court must give way to the primacy of the Executive Branch in making charging decisions.” Politico reported it was the final prosecution related to January 6, quoting him: “The court cannot write a different ending.”