By Joseph M. Hanneman and Steve Baker || April 16, 2026
A dozen Oath Keepers and Proud Boys prosecuted for seditious conspiracy will have their federal convictions vacated and remanded to U.S. District Court for dismissal of their indictments with prejudice, the U.S. Department of Justice wrote in a stunning series of U.S. Court of Appeals motions.
In the biggest development since President Donald J. Trump pardoned and ordered case dismissals for some 1,600 former Jan. 6 defendants in 2025, the DOJ put a sudden end to the highest profile criminal cases that metastasized from Jan. 6 protests and rioting at the U.S. Capitol. The court has not ruled on the motions.
That news brought long-sought-after relief to Oath Keepers Elmer Stewart Rhodes III, Kelly Meggs, Jessica Watkins, Kenneth Harrelson, Roberto Minuta, Edward Vallejo, Joseph Hackett, and David Moerschel. It was also welcomed by convicted Proud Boys Ethan Nordean, Joseph Biggs, Zachary Rehl, and Dominic Pezzola.
‘No more rigged system.’
Some defense attorneys suggested privately that the DOJ moves might be more self-preservation than mercy, as the pending filing of briefs in the case were expected to allege perjury, lack of any actual conspiracy, prosecutorial lies, misrepresentations of evidence, court refusals to grant changes of venue, and use of protected First Amendment speech to ensure convictions.
Trump commuted the sentences of the 12 on Jan. 20, 2025, but the former defendants were pushing for the Court of Appeals to overturn the convictions.
For its part, the DOJ was preaching justice—calling the Biden DOJ’s prosecution of the Oath Keepers and Proud Boys part of a “rigged system.”
“Yesterday the Department of Justice filed a motion to vacate the convictions of several Americans who had received clemency from President Trump,” DOJ Rapid Response wrote on X. “This ends these years-long, Biden-era weaponized prosecutions.
“President Trump demanded we stop the two-tiered injustice—and we are delivering,” the DOJ wrote. “No more rigged system.”
The Oath Keepers and Proud Boys trials generated the longest prison sentences of all Jan. 6 cases, including 18 years for Rhodes and Nordean, 17 years for Biggs, 15 years for Rehl, 12 years for Meggs, and 22 years for Proud Boys chairman Enrique Tarrio, who was not part of the appeals cases.
In its motions for vacating the convictions, the DOJ cited 28 U.S. Code §2106, which gives the U.S. Supreme Court and the U.S. Court of Appeals power to “affirm, modify, vacate, set aside or reverse” judgments of U.S. District Courts.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Daniel Lenerz wrote in three motions filed April 14 that vacating convictions and dismissing the indictments with prejudice “is in the interests of justice.”
‘This is not mercy. This is vindication.’
The dozen individuals were parties in three U.S. Court of Appeals cases stemming from high-profile convictions in U.S. District Court in Washington D.C. Two days before a major defense filing deadline in the cases, the DOJ moved the Court of Appeals to vacate the convictions.
Defense attorney William Shipley, who represented Minuta in the second Jan. 6 Oath Keepers trial, called the cases against the Oath Keepers a “farce” and a “concoction.”
“The Govt’s case was a complete concoction,” Shipley wrote on X. “It cherry-picked facts and IGNORED contrary facts.”
Defense attorney Brad Geyer, who represented Harrelson during the two-month Oath Keepers trial in fall 2022, said vacating the convictions and dismissing the indictments would be “vindication.”
“This is not mercy. This is vindication,” Geyer told Veritas Regnat. “Ken can now reclaim his good name, his liberty, and his life, while the American people finally see the J6 prosecutions for what they were: political persecution dressed up as justice.”
No Crime Committed
Geyer said the DOJ admitted the convictions were “not in the interests of justice.”
“…The government has finally conceded what we proved at trial and on appeal,” Geyer said. “Ken Harrelson committed no crime on January 6th. He was a peaceful American who exercised his First Amendment rights, and the prior administration turned the full weight of the federal government against him for it.”
Attorney Carolyn Stewart, who handled Meggs’ appeal, said acknowledgement of the wrongful convictions by the DOJ is overdue.
“We are thrilled that after years the DOJ finally admits it would be unjust to uphold the convictions,” Stewart told Veritas Regnat. “The shadow of the convictions has negatively impacted all those who were only commuted—not fully pardoned—and especially those like Kelly Meggs who were unjustly convicted of seditious conspiracy. He was innocent.”
The first Oath Keepers trial, which ran from Sept. 27-Nov. 29, 2022, was marred by perjured testimony given by two Capitol Police officials.
Former Officer Harry Dunn testified in October 2022 that U.S. Capitol Police Special Agent David Lazarus witnessed an alleged confrontation Dunn had with the Oath Keepers in the Capitol’s Small Rotunda. An investigation by Steve Baker found that at the time the alleged confrontation began, Lazarus was on the other side of the Capitol in a Senate office building.
Lazarus testified under oath that he passed by Dunn engaging with four Oath Keepers “three or four times” while he was evacuating staffers for House Speaker Nancy Pelosi who were trapped in a locked office in her chambers. Security video shows no such thing, and Lazarus was far away at the time Dunn said the incident occurred. •
Steve Baker produced and starred in a series of Jan. 6 videos for Blaze TV. See the entire series on YouTube.