{"id":8663,"date":"2026-08-05T04:35:33","date_gmt":"2026-08-05T04:35:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/movinginsiderusa.com\/?p=8663"},"modified":"2026-08-05T04:35:33","modified_gmt":"2026-08-05T04:35:33","slug":"judge-dismisses-jan-6-seditious-conspiracy-charges-against-oath-keepers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/movinginsiderusa.com\/?p=8663","title":{"rendered":"Judge dismisses Jan. 6 seditious conspiracy charges against Oath Keepers"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\"\"<\/figure>\n\n
Stewart Rhodes, right, chats with election denier Ivan Raiklin on Jan. 22, 2025. U.S. District Judge Amit P. Mehta wrote in his ruling that he dismissed the seditious-conspiracy case against Rhodes reluctantly. (Kent Nishimura\/Getty Images)<\/figcaption>\n<\/figure>\n

A federal judge on Tuesday agreed to dismiss the seditious-conspiracy case against the leader of the Oath Keepers, Stewart Rhodes, and seven other members of the extremist group who planned to storm the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.<\/p>

Read more Reflecting Pool defendant\u2019s lawyers move to head off new charges<\/a><\/p>\n

The ruling by U.S. District Judge Amit P. Mehta is the last step in the legal process to wipe out penalties from the Jan. 6 riot, cementing President Donald <\/b>Trump\u2019s bid to unravel the largest federal investigation in U.S. history.<\/p>\n

Mehta had sentenced Rhodes to 18 years in prison and imposed lesser prison terms on other top Oath Keepers who were convicted at jury trials. Trump commuted those prison sentences on his first day in office last year, and he pardoned more than 1,500 rioters.<\/p>\n

In a written ruling Tuesday, Mehta said he was dismissing the Oath Keepers\u2019 charges reluctantly at the request of the Justice Department. He criticized prosecutors for claiming in a court filing that wiping out the most serious convictions from the Jan. 6 riot was in the public interest.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe government does not say that the charges were legally deficient or that the evidence presented is insufficient to sustain Defendants\u2019 convictions,\u201d Mehta wrote. \u201cIt confesses to no prosecutorial misconduct, nor does it assert any denial or compromise of a defendant\u2019s rights.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Justice Department, Mehta said, was simply bestowing the ringleaders behind the riot \u201cunearned grace by wiping their records clean\u201d after juries found them guilty of committing \u201ccrimes against the United States itself.\u201d<\/p>\n

The riot, during a joint session of Congress that was being held to certify Joe Biden\u2019s victory over Trump in the 2020 presidential election, left more than 140 police officers<\/a> injured and caused an estimated $3 million in damage.<\/p>\n

Rioters marched on the Capitol after a rally in which Trump repeated his false claims<\/a> that he had won the election. Lawmakers were forced to evacuate, delaying Biden\u2019s certification as the winner.<\/p>\n

In his ruling, Mehta recounted how the Oath Keepers stocked firearms at a hotel outside D.C. and exchanged encrypted messages about using violence to thwart the congressional proceedings. The Oath Keeper with the guns, Edward Vallejo, was not called into action, Mehta added.<\/p>\n

When the rioters breached the Capitol, about 10 members of the Oath Keepers wearing military gear entered the building. One half of that group ended up in then-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi\u2019s office. The other half headed to the Senate chamber, where they tried with other rioters to \u201cstorm past a line of police officers,\u201d wrote Mehta, who was nominated to the bench by President Barack Obama.<\/p>\n

A second contingent of Oath Keepers later entered the Capitol and clashed with police trying to clear the building, according to the trial evidence Mehta cited in his ruling.<\/p>\n

In addition to Rhodes and Vallejo, the other Oath Keepers whose charges were dismissed are Kelly Meggs, Kenneth Harrelson, Jessica Watkins, Roberto Minuta, Joseph Hackett and David Moerschel. Harrelson and Watkins were acquitted of seditious conspiracy but convicted of other riot-related offenses.<\/p>\n

An attorney for Rhodes, James Lee Bright, said in a post on X that Mehta\u2019s ruling to dismiss the Oath Keepers\u2019 case \u201cpersonalizes his reasoning.\u201d<\/p>

Read more Nationals send outfielder James Wood to injured list with oblique strain<\/a><\/p>\n

Rhodes, he said, was convicted of a \u201cthought crime\u201d that \u201cshould never have been charged.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThis chapter is now over,\u201d the attorney wrote. \u201cCongrats to the remaining defendants.\u201d<\/p>\n

In a court filing Tuesday, attorneys for Vallejo maintained that he was not guilty of a crime. \u201cThe Court correctly granted the motion to dismiss with prejudice based on the government\u2019s exercise of discretion but incorrectly injected advisory opinions that are contrary to the presumption of innocence and unfair to an innocent man,\u201d the attorneys wrote.<\/p>\n

Trump pardoned nearly all the rioters<\/a> \u2014 more than 1,500 \u2014 who were charged by the Justice Department in the wake of Jan. 6. But that blanket pardon, issued on the president\u2019s first day in office last year, did not extend to about a dozen leaders and prominent members of two extremist groups behind the violence, the Proud Boys and the Oath Keepers.<\/p>\n

Those defendants were convicted of carrying out a seditious conspiracy against the United States or related offenses. Trump initially commuted their prison terms, stopping short of a full pardon. But this year, while those cases were being appealed, Justice Department officials filed legal papers to vacate the convictions altogether.<\/p>\n

The D.C. Circuit federal appeals court granted that request in May. U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro, a Trump ally who serves as the top federal prosecutor in D.C., then filed motions to dismiss the underlying charges in U.S. district court.<\/p>\n

Judge Timothy J. Kelly similarly ruled last month<\/a> to dismiss seditious conspiracy charges against the Proud Boys. Like Mehta, Kelly said judges are constrained to dismiss charges once prosecutors ask to drop them.<\/p>\n

Under Supreme Court precedent, prosecutors have \u201cexclusive authority and absolute discretion to decide whether to prosecute a case,\u201d and they may drop charges \u201cin the interests of justice\u201d even after defendants have been convicted.<\/p>\n

Trump\u2019s efforts to reframe the riot have continued. Even in recent days, he has asserted that those charged in the case \u201cwere treated so badly.\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cThis is the last of the prosecutions seeking to hold accountable those responsible for the events of January 6,\u201d Mehta wrote in his 15-page order dismissing the charges Tuesday.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat book is now closed. Today\u2019s epilogue diminishes the gravity of that day, denigrates the work of the prosecutors and law enforcement officers who secured these convictions, and excuses criminal acts that caused a centuries-long pillar of our democracy \u2014 the peaceful transfer of presidential power \u2014 to buckle.\u201d<\/p>

Read more Democrat exits Senate race in South Dakota, clearing way for independent<\/a><\/p>\n

He added, \u201cThe court cannot write a different ending.\u201d<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

While taking the last step in the legal process to wipe out penalties from the riot, the judge also criticized the Justice Department for undoing the most serious convictions.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":8661,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8663","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-interesting"],"yoast_head":"\nJudge dismisses Jan. 6 seditious conspiracy charges against Oath Keepers - Moving Insider USA<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/movinginsiderusa.com\/?p=8663\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Judge dismisses Jan. 6 seditious conspiracy charges against Oath Keepers - 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