JUST IN: Federal Judge Permanently Closes The Book On Four Major Jan. 6 Convictions

One of the biggest prosecutions to come out of January 6 is now permanently closed.

U.S. District Judge Timothy J. Kelly granted the Justice Department’s unopposed motion to dismiss the case against Ethan Nordean, Joseph Biggs, Zachary Rehl, and Dominic Pezzola with prejudice.

That last phrase matters. No pause, no delay, and no future administration gets another shot at this prosecution.

The ruling came after the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit vacated the four men’s judgments on May 21. The appeals court sent the matter back so the trial court could consider the government’s request for permanent dismissal.

Three of the defendants, Nordean, Biggs, and Rehl, had been convicted of seditious conspiracy and other offenses. Pezzola was acquitted of seditious conspiracy but convicted on several other counts.

The Justice Department moved on April 14 to have the appeals court vacate the judgments. Prosecutors said continuing the cases was not in the interests of justice and pointed to President Trump’s January 2025 clemency order.

The appeals court granted that request before briefing in the defendants’ appeals had even begun. Once the case returned to Kelly, the Justice Department asked him to dismiss it with prejudice under Rule 48(a) of the Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure.

Kelly explained that charging and dismissal decisions sit at the core of the Executive Branch’s constitutional authority. A judge may guard against harassment of a defendant, but he cannot force prosecutors to keep a case alive simply because he disagrees with their decision.

There was no harassment concern here. The defendants did not oppose dismissal, and the government asked for the strongest possible finality.

The judge also rejected the idea of dismissing without prejudice. Leaving the door cracked for a future president to revive the prosecution years from now would collide with the very protection Rule 48(a) is supposed to provide.

Courts decide cases the Executive prosecutes. They do not get to commandeer the Justice Department and become prosecutors themselves.

Kelly was equally clear about something else: he did not personally agree with the administration’s decision.

His memorandum called the events at the Capitol perilous and said nobody should mistake his ruling for an endorsement of abandoning the prosecution.

President Trump pardoned former Proud Boys chairman Enrique Tarrio and commuted the sentences of Nordean, Biggs, Rehl, and Pezzola. His proclamation also directed the attorney general to pursue dismissal with prejudice of pending January 6 indictments.

That distinction is important. Tarrio received a pardon, while the other four initially received commutations that ended their prison terms but did not erase their convictions.

The court process that followed went further. The judgments were vacated, and now the underlying case has been dismissed permanently.

The Associated Press confirmed that Friday’s order applies to the four defendants whose sentences were commuted rather than Tarrio, whose conviction was handled through the president’s pardon.

The report traced the different legal paths taken by the five men after President Trump returned to office. Tarrio, who received the longest sentence in the case, left prison under a full pardon, while Nordean, Biggs, Rehl, and Pezzola initially had their sentences commuted.

AP also noted that the related Oath Keepers matter remains before a different federal judge. The Justice Department has asked for those judgments to be vacated and the cases dismissed too, but that judge has not yet ruled.

That unresolved companion case makes Kelly’s order the clearest final marker yet in the administration’s effort to unwind the most prominent January 6 prosecutions.

Fox News reported in April that the Justice Department filed appeals-court motions covering major Proud Boys and Oath Keepers convictions, many of them involving the rarely used seditious conspiracy statute.

Prosecutors told the court that the Executive Branch no longer believed continued prosecution served the interests of justice. The filings tied that position directly to the clemency and dismissal policy President Trump announced on his first day back in office.

Those motions mattered because commutation alone ended prison terms without removing the judgments underneath them. Vacatur by the appeals court was the necessary next step before a district judge could permanently dismiss the prosecution.

For the four Proud Boys defendants, every one of those steps is now complete. The parallel Oath Keepers request remains unfinished.

This order does not declare the defendants innocent, rewrite the jury’s factual findings, or pretend the trial never occurred.

It does something the left may find even harder to accept. It recognizes that the Constitution does not let a federal judge keep prosecuting people after the Executive Branch has lawfully decided to stop.

One of the Biden-era Justice Department’s biggest January 6 showpieces has reached a permanent end.

Background:

Leaked DOJ Docs: FBI Informant Says Proud Boys Did Not Plan to Enter Capitol, Were There to Protect Trump Supporters
American Greatness ^ | 12 Jul, 2022 | Debra Heine
Posted on 7/13/2022, 8:25:26 AM by MtnClimber

The Department of Justice is well aware that the Proud Boys who attended the Stop the Steal rally on January 6 were not violent and did not conspire to enter the Capitol—yet are prosecuting them on conspiracy charges anyway, FBI documents obtained by Gateway Pundit reveal.

Five members of the group are currently in pre-trial detention on federal charges: Enrique Tarrio, Joseph Biggs, Ethan Nordean, Dominic Pezzola and Zachary Rehl.

A whistleblower leaked “a treasure trove” of exculpatory documents, and text messages—some marked “Highly Sensitive”—to the Gateway Pundit reporter Cara Castronuova. “These documents would be buried forever and never see the light of day if they were not leaked to us by a brave whistleblower,” Castronuova wrote. “While the informant does provide an honest assessment of the activity of the group, the videos and photos he took all day long of the group and sent back to his bosses were ultimately used to conjure up a case to present before a Grand Jury and Indict these individuals.”

The document dump includes hundreds of pages of transcripts of audio-recorded interviews between federal law enforcement officials and an FBI Confidential Human Source (CHS).

The CHS—identified as James Ehren Knowles—reportedly infiltrated the Kansas City Proud Boy chapter for over a year and a half before the January 6th rally, and kept FBI headquarters informed on the group’s activities. Knowles reportedly gained the K.C. Proud Boys’ trust and was included in all group communications.

He accompanied the group to the Capitol on January 6th, and provided his handlers at the FBI with on the ground updates as the rally devolved into a riot. He told FBI headquarters that his group “were not involved in, nor did they inspire the breaking of the barriers at the Capitol building.”

Knowles described the chaos as protesters made their way into the Capitol building as “herd mentality,” rather than organized.

“There were no overt threats of violence made at that time,” he said.

Knowles told his superiors that the K.C. Proud Boys went to the Jan. 6 rally with the intention of protecting Trump Supporters from Antifa attacks so they could enjoy the day and “get back to their hotels safely.”

“Our role at the rally was supposed to be defense only,” Knowles told his handlers. “Defending them from Antifa—defend only from Antifa and BLM, and ourselves if under attack.”

He added: “This should go without saying that you shouldn’t be knocking around some faggot with pink hair, just because he calls you a Nazi.”

The informant told the FBI that the Proud Boys never talked about “stopping the electoral college or certification of the election,” and did not conspire to go inside the Capitol.

Despite this exculpatory evidence, all of the K.C. Proud Boys have since been indicted and are facing decades in prison, Castronuova reported.

A total of six people (including a woman who was pregnant at the time) are being charged with Conspiracy, Obstruction of an Official Proceeding and Aiding and Abetting (this carries a maximum 20 year penalty), Obstruction of Law Enforcement During Civil Disorder and Aiding and Abetting, Threatening a Federal Officer, Entering and Remaining in a Restricted Building or Grounds and Carrying a Deadly or Dangerous Weapon.

Not only was there no conspiracy, according to the informant, the Proud Boys actually helped law enforcement while inside the Capitol.

On page 15 of the FBI’s Jan. 6 “Reporting Document,” Knowles reports that a law enforcement officers seemed “grateful” and one even gave the the K.C. Proud Boys a thumbs up, as they worked to deescalate the situation, and clear the area of the more rambunctious people.

Confidential Human Source (CHS), a collaborative source with direct and indirect access, most of whose reporting has been corroborated , stated the following on 1/6/2021:

CHS stated that the KC Proud Boys (KCPB) in attendance at the rally entered the Capitol building 30 minutes after the building was breached to help deescalate Trump supporters and law enforcement. Once KCPB entered the building, they told people to stop acting like anarchists and leave. KCPB told the people to start bagging trash from where trash cans were thrown at law enforcement, along with a woman who was saying the same thing to protestors. KCPB told protestors to stop at the doors of the House of Representatives, and that their voice was heard and it was time to go. A law enforcement officer gave a thumbs up to KCPB, as they were trying to clear the area of people trying to fight law enforcement.

No one from KCPB were involved with the battery of a law enforcement officer, nor did anyone damage property in the capital building. KCPB then went back to a rental house and adhered to the curfew in place. CHS stated law enforcement seemed grateful as KCPB ushered individuals out of the building.

One member of KCPB told an older “hefty” white law enforcement that the “Proud Boys deescalated downstairs, they are clearing out.”

The informant reported that Proud Boy leaders instructed members to be non-violent, and in a “defensive and not offensive” posture on Jan. 6.…

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