The Justice Department wants to permanently erase the highest-profile convictions of the January 6 Capitol attack.
Following President Donald Trump’s sweeping act of clemency in January 2025 that pardoned over 1,500 defendants, government lawyers took unprecedented legal action on Tuesday, April 14, 2026. The DOJ formally requested that the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit vacate the seditious conspiracy convictions of leaders from the Proud Boys and Oath Keepers.
U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro signed the official court filing. The administration is asking the appellate court to vacate the jury convictions entirely so the government can permanently dismiss the underlying indictments.
This maneuver goes significantly further than the 14 sentence commutations Trump issued to far-right extremist leaders last year. The federal government is now arguing it is in the interests of justice to reverse historical convictions even after juries delivered guilty verdicts.
Major outlets have verified the filing. The request to toss the convictions was detailed in a report by CBS News on Tuesday.
The legal strategy unfolds concurrently with other federal court shifts, including a recent ruling where a US judge dismissed a $10B Wall Street Journal defamation lawsuit brought by the President.
The DOJ’s actions deal a massive blow to the legacy of Biden-era prosecutors who spent years securing the sedition charges. Information verified by PBS confirms the breadth of the administration’s efforts to dismantle the previous Justice Department’s caseload.
Capitol Police officers injured during the riot have publicly opposed the unwinding of these cases. Officers Michael Fanone and Daniel Hodges previously went on record stating that reversing these specific convictions represents a systemic betrayal of the justice system.
It is historically unprecedented for a sitting Justice Department to seek the retroactive dismissal of a seditious conspiracy charge already proven before a jury. The appellate court will now weigh the DOJ’s motion to dismiss the charges against the established judicial record of the 2021 attack.
WELL OVERDUE!
DOJ moves to dismiss J6 seditious conspiracy convictions of Oath Keepers and Proud Boys leaders https://t.co/v5ZISaOlza via @JustTheNews— DDALEX (@DDALEX20) April 14, 2026