Federal judge dismisses final Jan. 6 Oath Keepers case

A federal judge on Tuesday formally dismissed the final remaining prosecutions stemming from the January 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol, vacating the seditious conspiracy convictions of Oath Keepers founder Stewart Rhodes and seven other members of the far-right militia group. The ruling by U.S. District Judge Amit Mehta came at the request of the Justice Department under President Donald Trump, effectively closing the book on the last major cases from the Capitol breach.

Judge Mehta, who oversaw the original trials, granted the motion to dismiss the superseding indictment with prejudice, but did so reluctantly and with sharp criticism. In his written opinion, he stated that the government's action "diminishes the gravity of that day, denigrates the work of the prosecutors and law enforcement officers who secured these convictions, and excuses criminal acts." He noted that the Justice Department did not argue the charges were legally deficient, the evidence was insufficient, or that any prosecutorial misconduct had occurred. Instead, prosecutors asserted that continuing the cases was not in the public interest, a position Mehta said he was bound by precedent to accept.