WASHINGTON — A federal judge has permanently dismissed the prosecution of four Proud Boys members whose criminal judgments from the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol attack were vacated this spring.
U.S. District Judge Timothy Kelly issued the ruling in Washington on Friday, July 10, 2026. The order covers Ethan Nordean, Joseph Biggs, Zachary Rehl, and Dominic Pezzola and bars the government from filing the same case again.
Kelly granted the Justice Department’s unopposed request after an appeals court erased the four judgments in May. He said federal law left him no practical basis to preserve a prosecution the executive branch had chosen to abandon.
The judge closes the case.
The dismissal with prejudice ends one of the Justice Department’s most significant Jan. 6 prosecutions. The final dismissal order does not amount to a new acquittal or a finding that the conduct presented at trial did not occur.
Instead, it completes a procedural sequence started by the Trump administration. The Justice Department first asked the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit to vacate the judgments and return the case to Kelly for dismissal.
A three-judge panel granted that request on May 21. The appeals court action removed the judgments before Kelly considered the government’s separate motion to dismiss the indictment.
Kelly wrote that he could not restore judgments the appeals court had already vacated. He also could not compel prosecutors to retry defendants when the Justice Department no longer intended to pursue the charges.
Court cites charging authority.
Kelly relied on Rule 48(a) of the Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure. The rule allows prosecutors to dismiss an indictment with the court’s permission.
Federal precedent gives judges a narrow role in reviewing such requests. Courts can intervene when dismissal could expose a defendant to harassment, including repeated cycles of charging and withdrawal.
That concern was absent because all four defendants supported dismissal. Kelly said a judge cannot deny an unopposed request merely because the court disagrees with the executive branch’s decision.
The judge also rejected dismissal without prejudice. That option could have allowed a future administration to attempt another prosecution years after the judgments were vacated and the sentences ended.
Kelly made clear, however, that his legal conclusion did not signal approval. He wrote that President Donald Trump’s views about Jan. 6 prosecutions were widely known, “whether those views are based on fact or fiction.”
He also described the Capitol attack as a serious assault on Congress, police, and the constitutional transfer of presidential power. The court’s order separated that judgment from the executive branch’s control over federal charging decisions.
Trump’s clemency changed the prosecution.
Trump commuted the four men’s sentences to time served on Jan. 20, 2025, his first day back in office. Trump’s January clemency proclamation named Nordean, Biggs, Rehl and Pezzola among 14 defendants receiving commutations.
The proclamation granted full, unconditional pardons to other people convicted of Jan. 6-related offenses. It also directed the attorney general to seek dismissal with prejudice of pending indictments connected to the Capitol attack.
A commutation reduces or ends a sentence but does not erase the conviction itself. That left the four Proud Boys judgments intact until the appeals court vacated them in May 2026.
Former Proud Boys national chairman Enrique Tarrio received a full pardon. He had been convicted at the same trial and sentenced by Kelly to 22 years, then the longest prison term imposed in a Jan. 6 case.
The jury returned mixed verdicts.
A Washington jury convicted Nordean, Biggs and Rehl of seditious conspiracy in May 2023. Jurors also found them guilty of other felonies tied to efforts to obstruct Congress as lawmakers certified the 2020 presidential election result.
Pezzola was acquitted of seditious conspiracy. He was convicted of several other crimes, including assaulting or resisting officers, robbery involving government property, and destruction of government property.
Video presented during the case showed Pezzola using a stolen police shield to break a Capitol window. The breach became an early entry point for rioters entering the building.
Kelly sentenced Nordean to 18 years, Biggs to 17 years, and Rehl to 15 years. Pezzola received a 10-year prison term.
The case stood among the rare modern federal prosecutions producing seditious conspiracy convictions. Proud Boys and Oath Keepers leaders were convicted in separate trials over plans and actions connected to Jan. 6.
A nationwide investigation followed the attack.
The Capitol breach triggered the largest investigation in Justice Department history. By early 2025, nearly 1,600 defendants had faced federal charges arising from the attack.
About 140 police officers were assaulted at the Capitol, including officers from the U.S. Capitol Police and Washington’s Metropolitan Police Department. The federal prosecution totals also included charges involving assault, obstruction, property destruction, and conspiracy.
Kelly’s ruling applies only to Nordean, Biggs, Rehl and Pezzola. A separate judge had not yet ruled on the Justice Department’s related effort to erase seditious conspiracy convictions involving Oath Keepers defendants.
For the four Proud Boys members, no further trial or sentencing is scheduled. Their judgments remain vacated, the indictment is dismissed with prejudice, and the federal prosecution is permanently closed.
