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 case is over. 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 first wave of reporting captured the sheer size of what just happened. Judge Drops All Charges Against Proud Boys A federal judge just dismissed the convictions of four Proud Boys members found guilty in the Jan. 6 Capitol breach—including seditious conspiracy and other serious charges like assaulting officers and destroying property. U.S…. — The Epoch Times (@EpochTimes) July 11, 2026 The legal mechanics are laid out in Judge Kelly’s seven-page memorandum. 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. That is the constitutional point Democrats cannot wave away. 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. But a judge’s personal view is not the law. The separation of powers is. The path to Friday’s ruling began the day President Trump returned to office. 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. Tarrio posted the newly filed order and celebrated the outcome.