A federal judge on Tuesday approved the Justice Department’s request to dismiss criminal charges against eight members of the right-wing extremist Oath Keepers group who had been convicted for their roles in the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol, while making clear he strongly disagreed with the decision.
U.S. District Judge Amit Mehta, based in Washington, D.C., granted the government’s motion to dismiss indictments against Oath Keepers founder Stewart Rhodes and several other members of the militia group. Some of those defendants had previously been convicted on seditious conspiracy charges tied to the events at the Capitol.
Although Mehta approved the request, he said he did so reluctantly, writing that he believed the government’s decision was “not in the public interest.” Still, the judge concluded he had no legal authority to reject the Justice Department’s motion.
“This court does strongly disagree,” Mehta wrote. “But that alone is not a valid basis to deny the motion. The court must give way to the primacy of the Executive Branch in making charging decisions.”
The ruling follows President Donald Trump’s decision on his first day back in office last year to pardon or commute the sentences of nearly all individuals who stormed the Capitol during the protest over the certification of former President Joe Biden’s 2020 election victory. The action fulfilled a campaign promise Trump had made before returning to the White House.
In his written order, Mehta said the dismissed cases represented the final remaining prosecutions seeking accountability for those found responsible for the Capitol breach. He noted that the events of Jan. 6 resulted in dozens of police officers being injured, the eventual deaths of five people, and millions of dollars in damage to the Capitol.
“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,” Mehta wrote.
“The court cannot write a different ending,” he added.
Among those affected by the dismissal was Rhodes, who had been sentenced to 18 years in prison after being convicted of orchestrating what prosecutors described as a weeks-long plot to forcibly impede the peaceful transfer of presidential power. Rhodes was one of 14 individuals whose sentences had previously been reduced to time served.
After his release from prison, Rhodes returned to Washington, where he met with Republican lawmakers inside the Capitol complex. According to the article, he sought their support in advocating for the release of another Oath Keepers member who remained jailed on federal weapons charges and was not included in Trump’s broad clemency actions.
Mehta also rejected the Justice Department’s primary justification for seeking dismissal. The government argued that dismissing the cases would protect the defendants from harassment. The judge disagreed with that reasoning, noting that prosecutors had given no indication they intended to bring the charges again in any jurisdiction.
“After all, the government has given no indication that it will recharge these Defendants, in the District or elsewhere,” Mehta wrote. “To the contrary, it bestows upon them unearned grace by wiping their records clean.”
Mehta’s opinion echoed the approach taken by another Washington-based federal judge, Timothy Kelly, who last month also reluctantly agreed to dismiss the remaining convictions against four leaders of the right-wing Proud Boys.
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