The United States Department of Justice has asked a federal appeals court to overturn the seditious conspiracy convictions of members of two far-right groups — the Proud Boys and the Oath Keepers — who were found guilty of helping to orchestrate the violent storming of the US Capitol on January 6, 2021. The filing, signed by Jeanine Pirro, the Trump-appointed US attorney for the District of Columbia, would vacate convictions for figures including Proud Boys leaders Ethan Nordean and Joseph Biggs, as well as Stewart Rhodes, a former attorney who founded the Oath Keepers militia.
The January 6 attack saw hundreds of supporters of then-President Donald Trump breach the Capitol building in an attempt to block the certification of Joe Biden's 2020 election victory. Federal prosecutors under the Biden administration pursued some of the most serious charges available, and several leaders of the two groups received lengthy prison sentences. Enrique Tarrio, the former chairman of the Proud Boys, was handed a 22-year sentence — among the harshest handed down in the sprawling prosecution. However, on his first day back in office in January 2025, Trump issued broad pardons and commutations to approximately 1,500 to 1,600 defendants connected to the attack. Tuesday's motion goes a step further: rather than simply reducing sentences, it seeks to wipe the convictions from defendants' records entirely.
The move marks a dramatic reversal from the position of the previous administration, which had described the guilty verdicts as a landmark moment of accountability for what prosecutors characterised as an assault on American democracy. A 2021 bipartisan Senate report found that more than 100 law enforcement officers were injured during the attack, and four officers who responded later died by suicide. The Trump White House, by contrast, has characterised the rioters as patriots and peaceful protesters, claiming without evidence that the 2020 election was fraudulent.
Why this matters: the filing represents one of the most concrete steps yet in the Trump administration's broader effort to reshape the legal and historical record of January 6. Erasing convictions — as opposed to pardoning those already sentenced — removes any formal finding of criminal guilt, potentially closing off future civil liability and cementing a revisionist narrative around one of the most consequential episodes in recent American political history. Legal and civil liberties observers are likely to scrutinise closely whether the appeals court accepts or pushes back on the Justice Department's unusual request to abandon its own prior successful prosecutions.