US judge dismisses Oath Keepers' January 6 convictions at Justice Dept. request

A US judge has dismissed cases against Oath Keepers founder Stewart Rhodes and other members of the right-wing militia group who participated in the January 6, 2021, attack on the US Capitol. The ruling, from US District Judge Amit Mehta, grants the Justice Department's request to toss out convictions for seditious conspiracy.

Rhodes and other Oath Keepers members had been convicted of plotting to disrupt the transfer of presidential power following Donald Trump's 2020 election loss. These defendants had already been released from prison as part of broader pardons and sentence commutations by Trump. Judge Mehta, who oversaw the trials, stated he strongly disagreed with the Justice Department's move but recognized their authority to drop the cases.

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Today’s 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.

In his ruling, Mehta wrote that the decision "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." He concluded, "The court cannot write a different ending."

The Justice Department's decision to dismiss these specific cases was argued as appropriate given Trump's directive to drop all pending January 6 cases on his first day in office. The department did not echo Trump's arguments that the prosecutions were an abuse of the legal system. These eight defendants were among the few January 6 defendants not fully pardoned by Trump, meaning their convictions would have otherwise remained.

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The court cannot write a different ending.