A federal judge on Friday granted the Justice Department’s request to dismiss the convictions of four Proud Boys convicted for their roles in the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol.
U.S. District Judge Timothy J. Kelly signed off on the motion to dismiss with prejudice, permanently closing the cases against Ethan Nordean, Joseph Biggs, Zachary Rehl and Dominic Pezzola.
Kelly issued a seven-page opinion saying longstanding separation-of-powers principles leave charging decisions to the executive branch and that he could not require the Justice Department to maintain a prosecution it had decided to drop.
Kelly wrote, "There is little mystery about why the Government is moving to dismiss this case, or whether dismissal is in fact what the Executive seeks," and added, "President Trump's views about the prosecution of those who attacked the U.S. Capitol on January 6—whether those views are based on fact or fiction—are well known, as is his intention to extend clemency to them through the Executive Order."
The four defendants were convicted in 2023; Rehl was sentenced to 15 years, Pezzola to 10 years, Nordean to 18 years and Biggs to 17 years. All four had previously had their prison terms commuted by President Trump while their convictions remained in place.
Pezzola was convicted of assaulting police, robbery and destroying government property and was found guilty of stealing a Capitol Police riot shield before using it to smash a Capitol window, which prosecutors said created the first breach point through which hundreds of rioters entered the building; he was acquitted of seditious conspiracy but convicted on multiple other felony counts. Nordean, Biggs and Rehl were convicted of seditious conspiracy and several other felonies, including conspiracy to obstruct Congress' certification of the 2020 presidential election, obstruction of law enforcement during a civil disorder and destruction of government property.
The Justice Department first moved in April to vacate the convictions and asked the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia to overturn them; a three-judge panel approved that move in May and sent the case back to Kelly for entry of the dismissal. The Justice Department argued the April request was "in the interests of justice" in light of President Donald Trump's Jan. 20, 2025, executive order commuting their sentences and issuing full pardons to Enrique Tarrio and hundreds of other Jan. 6 defendants, and Kelly noted the executive order explicitly requires the Government seek dismissal with prejudice.
Kelly said he did not approve of the administration's move and warned that "no one should mistake the Court's granting of the Government's motion for its agreement with those decisions." He wrote that the court could not sustain the case once the Justice Department declined to maintain the prosecution and added, "Indeed, it is hard to see how any course other than granting the motion in full could make practical sense. Denying the motion would not somehow revive the convictions that the Court of Appeals vacated. Nor would denying it mean a retrial would follow, because the Court lacks the authority to compel the Executive to pursue a prosecution, full stop."
Zachary Rehl celebrated the ruling in a post on X, writing, "Finally, it’s ALL OVER! 'January 6th can now be a thing of the past for me!'" Enrique Tarrio celebrated the dismissal on X as well, writing, "We took the worst they threw at us the raids, the solitary, the lies and we stood tall," and added, "Trump dropped the pardons and now the rest is crumbling. Justice is SERVED! Proud Boys don't lose. We WIN. This is OUR victory. THANK YOU PRESIDENT DONALD J TRUMP and all of you that fought for us!"
Tarrio was granted clemency by President Trump last year after being sentenced to 22 years in federal prison in 2023.
On his first day back in office last year, President Trump issued approximately 1,500 full pardons to people convicted in connection with the attack on the Capitol and commuted the sentences of 14 others.
Trump has touted the establishment of an "anti-weaponization fund" designed to pay people he says were unfairly targeted by prosecutors and has not ruled out compensation for Jan. 6 rioters; a federal judge last month indefinitely blocked the fund from becoming active.
Kelly wrote in his memorandum that "the attack on the Capitol on January 6, 2021 was a perilous event" and concluded, "Moving forward, if this Nation's experiment in self-government is to last another 250 years, the American people – no matter their partisan preferences – will have to act together to preserve, protect and defend that miracle through our constitutional framework."