Judge ends Proud Boys Jan. 6 case after Trump clemency order

A federal judge in Washington has dismissed the criminal case against four Proud Boys members convicted over the January 6, 2021, attack on the US Capitol. The order matters because the dismissal was granted with prejudice, meaning prosecutors cannot bring the case again.

US District Judge Timothy J Kelly granted the Justice Department’s request on Friday, according to his seven-page ruling. Kelly, who was appointed by President Donald Trump, said the decision followed constitutional limits on a court’s power to force the executive branch to continue a prosecution.

The defendants are Ethan Nordean, Joseph Biggs, Zachary Rehl and Dominic Pezzola. Nordean, Biggs and Rehl were convicted in 2023 of charges that included seditious conspiracy; Pezzola was acquitted of that charge but convicted of other felonies, including assaulting a police officer, according to the case record cited by Al Jazeera.

Kelly stressed that the dismissal did not change the gravity of the conduct proved at trial. He wrote that the Capitol attack was dangerous, injured police officers and targeted the constitutional process for transferring presidential power.

Judge says court could not block dismissal

Kelly said his ruling turned on separation of powers rather than on whether he approved of the Trump administration’s choices. “No one should mistake the Court’s granting of the Government’s motion for its agreement with those decisions,” he wrote.

The judge said there were no legal grounds for refusing the government’s request to dismiss the case. He also noted that Trump’s executive order required the Justice Department to seek dismissal of remaining January 6 cases.

The four men had received prison sentences ranging from 10 to 18 years, with Pezzola given the shortest term, according to Al Jazeera. Trump commuted their sentences in January 2025 as part of his broader action on January 6 defendants.

Trump has sought to unwind January 6 prosecutions

The Capitol attack followed Trump’s 2020 election loss to Democrat Joe Biden. Al Jazeera reported that Trump continued to spread false claims that the election had been rigged before Congress met on January 6 to certify the Electoral College result.

Trump addressed supporters at a “Save America” rally near the White House that day and repeated his claim that he had won. Some supporters then went to the Capitol, forced their way into the building, attacked police and caused millions of dollars in damage, according to Al Jazeera.

The attack disrupted the certification proceedings and forced members of Congress to be taken to safety. Al Jazeera reported that one rioter was shot by police while entering the House Speaker’s Lobby through a broken window, an officer died from a stroke the next day after being beaten, and others later died by suicide.

The Justice Department under the Biden administration brought criminal cases against nearly 1,600 people linked to the attack. Trump, who called the prosecutions a “national injustice” and campaigned on pardons, signed an executive order on January 20, 2025, granting broad clemency to most Capitol attack defendants and commuting 14 sentences.

Trump also faced state and federal criminal indictments over alleged efforts to overturn the 2020 election result, but those charges were dropped after he won the 2024 election, according to Al Jazeera.

Kelly closed his ruling by warning that the durability of US self-government depends on Americans protecting the constitutional system. His order leaves the convictions against the four Proud Boys members dismissed permanently at the government’s request.

This story draws on original reporting from Al Jazeera.