A federal judge on Tuesday approved the Justice Department motion to dismiss proceedings against right-wing Oath Keepers militia members involved in the January 6 2021 US Capitol breach according to court records.

The decision by Washington-based US District Judge Amit Mehta vacates the seditious conspiracy convictions of Oath Keepers founder Stewart Rhodes along with other group members found guilty of plotting to disrupt the power transfer following Donald Trump loss in the 2020 election.

All defendants had already been released from custody under Trump broad pardon of nearly 1600 individuals charged in the incident along with commutations for remaining sentences.

Mehta who oversaw the two seditious conspiracy trials in 2022 and 2023 stated in the order that he strongly disagreed with the Trump Justice Department action yet determined that prosecutors held authority to drop the matters.

Today 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 the peaceful transfer of presidential power to buckle Mehta wrote. The court cannot write a different ending.

Justice Department Seeks to Vacate Proud Boys Convictions

The Justice Department also sought to vacate seditious conspiracy convictions of far-right Proud Boys members for their part in the Capitol attack. Members of a pro-Trump crowd stormed the Capitol on January 6 2021 in an unsuccessful bid to halt congressional certification of Trump defeat.

The eight defendants whose cases were dismissed on Tuesday ranked among the few January 6 defendants whom Trump did not fully pardon so their convictions would have remained without the Justice Department intervention.

Prosecutors stated dismissal was warranted given Trump directive to end all pending January 6 cases on the first day of his second term. Trump has claimed January 6 defendants faced mistreatment and that their prosecutions represented legal system abuse though the Justice Department avoided those arguments when requesting case dismissal.

Several Oath Keepers members had pursued appeals of their convictions.