Judge Grants Dismissal of Jan. 6 Cases but States He Does Not Agree with Decision

U.S. District Judge Timothy Kelly granted the Justice Department's motion to dismiss with prejudice the Jan. 6 prosecution of Ethan Nordean, Joseph Biggs, Zachary Rehl and Dominic Pezzola on Friday, Fox News reported.

The D.C. Circuit had already vacated the four men's convictions before returning the case to Judge Kelly. In a seven-page opinion, Kelly wrote that separation-of-powers principles leave charging decisions to the executive branch and that he could not require the Justice Department to maintain a prosecution it had decided to drop.

"Because the decisions to issue the Executive Order and to abandon this prosecution—even after the Government secured convictions for serious crimes relating to the attack on the Capitol on January 6—are solely the Executive's, no one should mistake the Court's granting of the Government's motion for its agreement with those decisions," Kelly wrote.

Dominic Pezzola was convicted of assaulting police, robbery and destroying government property after he was found guilty of stealing a Capitol Police riot shield and using it to smash a Capitol window. He was acquitted of seditious conspiracy.

Ethan Nordean, Joseph Biggs and Zachary Rehl were convicted of seditious conspiracy and other felonies including conspiracy to obstruct Congress' certification of the 2020 presidential election, obstruction of law enforcement during a civil disorder and destruction of government property.

The Justice Department moved in April to vacate the convictions and dismiss the case. President Donald Trump issued an executive order on January 20, 2025, commuting the four men's sentences and issuing full pardons to former Proud Boys Chairman Enrique Tarrio and hundreds of other Jan.

6 defendants. Judge Kelly, who was appointed by President Trump during his first term, had sentenced Tarrio to 22 years in prison. "There is little mystery about why the Government is moving to dismiss this case, or whether dismissal is in fact what the Executive seeks," Kelly wrote.