The Department of Justice has asked a federal appeals court to toss seditious conspiracy convictions against leaders of a pair of far-right groups who were tried and found guilty of planning and carrying out the attempted Jan. 6 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol.
The motion requests dismissals of the convictions of Oath Keepers militia leaders Kelly Meggs, Kenneth Harrelson and Jessica Watkins, and Proud Boys members Ethan Nordean, Joseph Biggs, Zachary Rehl and Dominic Pezzola.
“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 motion, signed by U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro, reads.
Nordean’s attorney, Nicholas Smith, told The Associated Press that the Department of Justice made a “wise decision” by seeking dismissal of these convictions.
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“We don’t want a precedent that says that any physical confrontation between protesters and law enforcement means a crime akin to treason, such as seditious conspiracy,” Smith said to the news outlet.
On his first day of his second term, President Donald Trump pardoned over 1,000 people involved in the Capitol riot and commuted sentences of those charged with more serious crimes. Trump also pardoned former Proud Boys leader Enrique Tarrio, who was convicted of seditious conspiracy.
However, this recent request by the DOJ would go a step further by erasing the convictions for the extremist-group leaders entirely.
After the attack on the Capitol in 2021, the DOJ and the FBI launched a nationwide investigation under the Biden administration. Prosecutors charged more than 1,580 people and secured roughly 1,270 convictions.
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