{"id":30432,"date":"2026-08-07T00:24:23","date_gmt":"2026-08-06T19:24:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/?p=30432"},"modified":"2026-08-07T00:24:23","modified_gmt":"2026-08-06T19:24:23","slug":"jan-6-prosecutions-are-over-but-the-fight-lingers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/?p=30432","title":{"rendered":"Jan. 6 prosecutions are over, but the fight lingers"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><script>\r\n  atOptions = {\r\n    'key' : '644b717812d811d6a1c1fc5b6ccd6fa6',\r\n    'format' : 'iframe',\r\n    'height' : 90,\r\n    'width' : 728,\r\n    'params' : {}\r\n  };\r\n<\/script>\r\n<script src=\"https:\/\/www.highperformanceformat.com\/644b717812d811d6a1c1fc5b6ccd6fa6\/invoke.js\"><\/script>\r\n<br \/>\n<br \/><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/images.axios.com\/Ep351_bCuMEGV-oxDzu_bD4V6SI=\/0x0:5015x2821\/1366x768\/2026\/08\/06\/1786034971848.jpeg\" \/><\/p>\n<p>The years-long saga of prosecuting the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.axios.com\/2026\/01\/06\/trump-gop-jan-6-riot-anniversary\" target=\"_blank\">Jan. 6 attack<\/a> effectively came to an end this week, when a judge dismissed a remaining indictment against Oath Keepers members already freed by President <a href=\"https:\/\/www.axios.com\/politics-policy\/donald-trump\" target=\"_blank\">Trump<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p><strong>The big picture: <\/strong>Not only has Trump erased the legal consequences for many Jan. 6 defendants, but his administration has moved to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.axios.com\/2026\/01\/06\/trump-white-house-jan-6-website\" target=\"_blank\">rewrite the history<\/a> of a deadly day \u2014 and oust federal employees <a href=\"https:\/\/www.axios.com\/2025\/07\/12\/pam-bondi-fires-justice-employees-jan6-documents-trump\" target=\"_blank\">who worked on<\/a> related cases.<\/p>\n<hr>\n<p><strong>Driving the news: <\/strong>Judges in recent weeks disposed of the final two cases accusing leaders of the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.axios.com\/2023\/05\/04\/proud-boys-enrique-tarrio-seditious-conspiracy\" target=\"_blank\">Proud Boys<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.axios.com\/2023\/05\/25\/oath-keepers-stewart-rhodes-sentenced\" target=\"_blank\">Oath Keepers<\/a> of orchestrating a plot to undermine the transfer of power. But the jurists were candid in saying that didn&#8217;t mean they agreed with the administration.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Judge Amit Mehta <a href=\"https:\/\/storage.courtlistener.com\/recap\/gov.uscourts.dcd.239207\/gov.uscourts.dcd.239207.981.0.pdf\" target=\"_blank\">acknowledged<\/a> the gravity of his Tuesday order granting the DOJ&#8217;s request to toss the Oath Keepers&#8217; indictment. &#8220;This is the last of the prosecutions seeking to hold accountable those responsible for the events of January 6,&#8221; he wrote. &#8220;That book is now closed.&#8221;<\/li>\n<li>He wrote of an epilogue that diminished what happened that day and denigrated the work of prosecutors and law enforcement. But he concluded, &#8220;The court cannot write a different ending.&#8221;<\/li>\n<li>A DOJ spokesperson told Axios in a statement that they &#8220;respect&#8221; Mehta&#8217;s decision but &#8220;disagree with the characterization of our reasoning.&#8221;<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Zoom out:<\/strong> U.S. District Judge Timothy Kelly, a Trump appointee, similarly dismissed the remaining Proud Boys&#8217; case but recognized Jan. 6 &#8220;was an attack on the Constitution&#8217;s mechanism to facilitate the peaceful transfer of power from one president to the next.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p><strong>What they&#8217;re saying: <\/strong>But even if the prosecutions have ended, they&#8217;ve created an in-depth chronicle of that day and what led to it, says Brendan Ballou, founder of the Public Integrity Project and a former federal prosecutor who resigned from the DOJ following the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.axios.com\/2025\/11\/15\/trump-jan-6-pardons-j6-capitol-illegal-guns-wilson\" target=\"_blank\">Jan. 6 pardons<\/a>.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>&#8220;This was this was always a risk, and why I think the prosecutions were so important,&#8221; Ballou tells Axios. &#8220;Because it&#8217;s a historical record that, try as he might, Donald Trump is not successfully erasing.&#8221;<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Catch up quick: <\/strong>In those high-profile cases, members of both groups were found guilty of seditious conspiracy. <\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.axios.com\/2022\/03\/16\/proud-boys-leader-denied-bond-ahead-of-trial\" target=\"_self\">Henry &#8220;Enrique&#8221; Tarrio<\/a>, who led the Proud Boys, was sentenced to 22 years in prison, the longest sentence handed down in the Jan. 6 cases. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.axios.com\/2022\/11\/29\/stewart-rhodes-oath-keepers-trial-jan-6\" target=\"_self\">Stewart Rhodes<\/a>, of Oath Keepers infamy, was sentenced to 18 years.<\/li>\n<li>But Tarrio was <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2025\/05\/04\/us\/politics\/trump-tarrio-proud-boys-pardon.html\" target=\"_blank\">pardoned<\/a> in Trump&#8217;s day-one clemency sweep, while other members of the far-right groups had their sentences cut short with commutations. Earlier this year, the DOJ <a href=\"https:\/\/storage.courtlistener.com\/recap\/gov.uscourts.cadc.40140\/gov.uscourts.cadc.40140.1208840671.0.pdf\" target=\"_blank\">asked<\/a> an appeals court to vacate the remaining convictions.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Between the lines: <\/strong>The end of the cases comes as no great surprise under an administration that&#8217;s taken a radically different approach to Jan. 6 than its predecessors.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Even with his $1.776 billion &#8220;anti-weaponization&#8221; fund defunct, the president has <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/Acyn\/status\/2083226246532784588\" target=\"_blank\">continued<\/a> to suggest those involved in the riot deserve payouts.<\/li>\n<li>The controversy has also spilled out into the way Trump&#8217;s judicial nominees have <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/SenBlumenthal\/status\/2049621868773069026\" target=\"_blank\">talked<\/a> about the riot after years of prosecutions and Capitol Hill probes, sparking Democratic ire and warnings from former DOJ attorneys who prosecuted Jan. 6 cases.<\/li>\n<li>&#8220;Anybody that has interacted with the reality of January six knows that it was an attack on democracy,&#8221; Ballou says.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Go deeper: <\/strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.axios.com\/2026\/05\/20\/jan-6-officers-sue-trump-weaponization-fund\" target=\"_blank\">Jan. 6 officers sue over Trump&#8217;s $1.8B fund they call a &#8220;corrupt sham&#8221;<\/a><\/p>\n<script async=\"async\" data-cfasync=\"false\" src=\"https:\/\/pl30214220.effectivecpmnetwork.com\/9ab3d4df8a7e1a6171e16ddbf732cc19\/invoke.js\"><\/script>\r\n<div id=\"container-9ab3d4df8a7e1a6171e16ddbf732cc19\"><\/div>\r\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The years-long saga of prosecuting the Jan. 6 attack effectively came to an end this week, when a judge dismissed a remaining indictment against Oath Keepers members already freed by President Trump. The big picture: Not only has Trump erased the legal consequences for many Jan. 6 defendants, but his administration has moved to rewrite&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":30433,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/images.axios.com\/Ep351_bCuMEGV-oxDzu_bD4V6SI=\/0x0:5015x2821\/1366x768\/2026\/08\/06\/1786034971848.jpeg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-30432","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-political-news"],"brizy_media":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30432","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=30432"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30432\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/30433"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=30432"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=30432"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=30432"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}