Judge dismisses the remaining January 6 convictions of Proud Boys leaders at the DOJ's request
U.S. District Judge Timothy Kelly has dismissed with prejudice the seditious conspiracy case against Proud Boys leaders Ethan Nordean, Joseph Biggs, Zachary Rehl and Dominic Pezzola, permanently clearing the charges and barring any future federal prosecution on the same counts. The Justice Department asked the court to end the prosecution after the president’s January 2025 proclamation commuted the men’s sentences and directed the attorney general to pursue dismissal.
Kelly, a Trump appointee who presided over the original trial, signaled he was acting under legal constraint rather than agreement, writing that “no one should mistake the Court’s granting of the Government’s motion for its agreement.” The dismissal completes a reversal that ran through the appeals court, which vacated the convictions in May and returned the case.
The order removes the last federal legal exposure for the group’s leadership over the Capitol attack, formalizing through the courts an outcome the executive branch set in motion with clemency — and leaving the trial record intact even as the convictions built on it are erased.