Oath Keepers, Proud Boys feel hopeful and skeptical after Trump DOJ’s moves to end Biden-era witch hunt

The Trump administration’s Department of Justice is moving to vacate the seditious conspiracy convictions against several Proud Boys and Oath Keepers members who were involved in the Jan. 6, 2021, protest at the U.S. Capitol.

On Tuesday, the DOJ filed unopposed motions to throw out convictions and dismiss the indictments with prejudice for Oath Keepers founder Stewart Rhodes and members Kelly Meggs, Kenneth Harrelson, and Jessica Watkins, as well as Proud Boys members Ethan Nordean, Joseph Biggs, Zachary Rehl, and Dominic Pezzola.

‘I’m excited to finally move on from January 6.’

The DOJ claimed that dismissal of the criminal cases would be “in the interests of justice.”

“The government’s motion to vacate in this case is consistent with its practice of moving the Supreme Court to vacate convictions in cases where the government has decided in its prosecutorial discretion that dismissal of a criminal case is in the interests of justice — motions that the Supreme Court routinely grants,” the motions read.

Under the Biden DOJ, Rhodes was sentenced to 18 years in prison, Meggs to 12 years, Harrelson to four years, Watkins to 8.5 years, Nordean to 18 years, Biggs to 17 years, Rehl to 15 years, and Pezzola to 10 years.

In January 2025, Trump commuted the sentences of each of the defendants. However, the president stopped short of granting a pardon, leaving the convictions on their records. Among the defendants, six are military veterans, and the continued presence of those felony convictions carries significant consequences for any VA benefits or military retirement pay for which they may previously have been eligible.

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“I couldn’t be happier,” Rehl told Blaze News. “I’m excited to finally move on from January 6, and my family and I are looking forward to rebuilding our lives again.”

Rehl thanked Trump, acting U.S. Attorney General Todd Blanche, and U.S. pardon attorney Edward Martin for “making this possible!”

Carolyn Stewart, an attorney representing Meggs, stated that she is “pleased that the DOJ finally admitted there should be no further prosecution of my innocent client, Mr. Meggs — where he can go forward with his life without this shadow.”

Norm Pattis, an attorney representing Biggs, expressed skepticism that the court would grant the DOJ’s request but told Blaze News that he is “delighted to see the Justice Department throw in the towel,” noting that it “should have done that years ago.”

“I hope the courts do it, but I do think it’s a head-scratching request,” Pattis said, explaining that the DOJ previously poured thousands of hours and hundreds of thousands — if not millions — of dollars into its prosecution and therefore “clearly thought that the interests of justice required that prosecution then.”

“The separation of powers doctrine leaves to the executive branch decisions about whether to prosecute. Once the case is gone to judgment in the judicial branch, that branch has spoken. Suggesting that, ‘Well, we’ve changed our mind, millions of dollars, years later, in the interest of justice,’ it doesn’t really promote respect for the law. It makes it look like a funhouse over there and makes you wonder who’s running the shop,” Pattis stated.

He noted that despite Trump’s decision to commute Biggs’ sentence, the military veteran lost the pension that he “earned by virtue of his Purple Heart and combat injuries that he suffered.”

“We want that pension back,” Pattis said. “I’m not at all counting on relief. I still think this ends up back on the president’s desk for a full pardon.”

RELATED: Trump pardons 1,500 Jan. 6 defendants, commutes the sentences of 14

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Rhodes, who also spoke with Blaze News, expressed hopefulness about the DOJ’s motion to vacate, calling it “very good news,” adding that it would “be a blessing to have not just our convictions overturned, but the underlying charges dismissed with prejudice.”

“It would wipe our records clean,” Rhodes told Blaze News. “I’m a disabled veteran. … I’m service-connected disabled from a parachuting accident when I was serving as a paratrooper in the Army, and I lost all my VA benefits, along with being a felon and losing my rights to bear arms.”

Rhodes speculated that the DOJ may have requested to vacate to “avoid a potentially negative outcome on appeal that could affect their ability to use a statute in the future.” He noted that seditious conspiracy is “a very legally vulnerable statute” from the Civil War era that is “overbroad and vague” and “does not provide any shelter for free speech.”

“It’s an ancient statute that I don’t believe passes muster constitutionally, but it hasn’t been directly challenged on those grounds,” Rhodes said.

Rhodes stated that the DOJ may realize that the statute is “vulnerable [to] being struck down” or that it may result in the “narrowing of the scope of … conspiracy charges in general.”

He also pointed to the active civil claims that Jan. 6 defendants lodged against the U.S. as a possible reason the DOJ requested that the convictions be thrown out.

“If they wind up with a bad outcome in the appellate case, with the court finding that there was prosecutorial misconduct, that there was constitutional violations, that could affect them when it comes to the civil claims too. And we can point to those findings,” he said.

“There was perjury in all of our cases. We caught two cops lying red-handed in our case,” Rhodes said, referring to a Blaze News investigation that revealed then-U.S. Capitol Police Officers Harry Dunn and David Lazarus had testified that they were together on Jan. 6, despite video footage showing otherwise. “That’s the kind of crap that would come out in the appeal.”

“I don’t believe this is the DOJ being nice to us,” he continued. “I’m willing to give props to the DOJ for doing the right thing, even if it’s not for the right reasons.”

If the court accepts the DOJ’s requests, Rhodes noted that it will “definitely be fantastic for the restoration of our lives.”

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