Trump-appointed judge reluctantly dismisses Proud Boys sedition case, warning about presidential overreach
U.S. District Judge Timothy J. Kelly granted the Justice Department's motion to dismiss seditious conspiracy charges against four Proud Boys leaders, despite calling the Capitol attack 'perilous' and underscoring that the decision stemmed from separation of powers, not the merits.
A federal judge on Friday ended the seditious conspiracy prosecution of four Proud Boys members who led the violent breach of the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, issuing a blunt critique of President Donald Trump's efforts to purge the legal consequences of the riot.
The judge's reluctant ruling
Judge Timothy J. Kelly, a Trump appointee to the D.C. district court, granted the government's motion to dismiss the case with prejudice, meaning it cannot be revived by a future administration. His seven-page ruling emphasized that the decision was compelled by the separation of powers, not agreement with the outcome.
No one should mistake the Court's granting of the Government's motion for its agreement with those decisions.
Kelly then detailed the gravity of the attack, describing it as a "perilous event" that targeted police officers (more than 140 injured), Congress, and the constitutional process of transferring power. He noted that the defendants, Ethan Nordean, Joseph Biggs, Zachary Rehl and Dominic Pezzola, had been convicted of serious crimes after trial.
A judge's warning about executive power
Kelly went further, suggesting that the Justice Department's request was driven not by legal principles but by the president's personal agenda.
There is little mystery about why the Government is moving to dismiss this case, or whether dismissal is in fact what the Executive seeks. President Trump's views about the prosecution of those who attacked the US Capitol on January 6, whether those views are based on fact or fiction, are well known.
The judge's candid language underscored the tension between the White House and the judiciary, with Kelly concluding that denying the motion would have been practically meaningless because the appeals court had already vacated the convictions in May.
The Capitol attack and its aftermath
The riot erupted after Trump held a rally near the White House where he repeated false claims that the 2020 election was stolen. Supporters marched to the Capitol, overwhelmed police lines, and forced lawmakers to evacuate during the certification of Joe Biden's victory. One rioter was fatally shot, and damage to the building exceeded $3 million.
Pezzola shattered a Senate-wing window with a stolen police shield, creating the first entry point for hundreds of rioters. That breach became one of the iconic images of the day. At trial, prosecutors described the group's leaders, including then-national chair Enrique Tarrio (who was not among the four dismissed defendants), as a "fighting force" that arrived at the Capitol even as Trump spoke.
It was an attack on the Constitution's mechanism to facilitate the peaceful transfer of power from one president to the next.
Trump's campaign to unwind the prosecutions
On his first day back in office in 2025, Trump pardoned roughly 1,500 rioters but stopped short of full pardons for about a dozen extremist leaders. The four Proud Boys members had their sentences, ranging from 10 to 18 years, commuted. This spring, under acting Attorney General Todd Blanche, the Justice Department moved to vacate the convictions entirely.
The D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals approved that motion in May, sending the case back to Kelly for the final dismissal he issued Friday. Trump previously pardoned Tarrio, who had been sentenced to 22 years, the longest term linked to the attack. A similar push to erase the convictions of Oath Keepers leader Stewart Rhodes is still pending before Judge Amit Mehta.
- Proud Boys members storm U.S. Capitol, disrupting certification of Joe Biden's election victory.
- Nordean, Biggs, Rehl receive lengthy prison terms; Pezzola convicted separately.
- Trump pardons roughly 1,500 rioters but only commutes sentences of Proud Boys and Oath Keepers leaders.
- Justice Department under acting AG Todd Blanche moves to vacate convictions of Proud Boys four.
- D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals approves the DOJ motion, returning case to Judge Kelly.
- Judge Kelly reluctantly dismisses case with prejudice, issuing a warning about presidential overreach.
Friday's ruling closes one of the last major January 6 cases, marking a decisive turn in the largest Justice Department investigation in U.S. history, now curtailed at the direction of the president whose supporters carried out the attack.
