Judge says ruling ‘denigrates’ work of prosecutors who secured convictions
All nine defendants had already been released from prison before the court acted. On Tuesday, U.S. District Judge Amit Mehta granted the Justice Department’s motion to dismiss the criminal cases against members of the Oath Keepers who took part in the January 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol, vacating the group’s seditious conspiracy convictions.
“Today’s epilogue diminishes the gravity of that day, denigrates the work of the prosecutors and law enforcement officers who secured these convictions, and excuses criminal acts that caused a centuries-long pillar of our democracy – the peaceful transfer of presidential power – to buckle,” Mehta wrote in the court filing. He added: “The court cannot write a different ending.”
Stewart Rhodes, who founded the Oath Keepers, and other group members had been found guilty of seditious conspiracy for plotting to stop the transfer of power after Trump lost the 2020 election.
Trump had issued pardons covering nearly all 1,600 people charged in the January 6 attack and commuted the prison sentences of the remaining defendants.