Court vacates Oath Keepers convictions in final Jan. 6 case

WASHINGTON (MNTV) — A federal judge has dismissed the criminal cases against members of the far-right Oath Keepers militia convicted over the Jan. 6, 2021 attack on the U.S. Capitol, closing the legal chapter on one of the most serious assaults on the peaceful transfer of power in American history.

U.S. District Judge Amit Mehta approved the Justice Department’s request to drop the cases, vacating convictions against Oath Keepers founder Stewart Rhodes and other members found guilty of seditious conspiracy — plotting to use force against the government — for trying to disrupt certification of the 2020 presidential election results.

The 2021 attack came as a mob of Trump supporters stormed the Capitol to stop Congress confirming his election defeat.

The dismissal follows Trump’s sweeping pardons freeing nearly all of the more than 1,600 people charged over Jan. 6.

The defendants had already been released; the ruling formally erases their convictions.

Mehta, who approved the request, criticized the outcome.

The dismissal, he wrote, “diminishes the gravity of that day… and excuses criminal acts that caused a centuries-long pillar of our democracy, the peaceful transfer of presidential power, to buckle.”

Supporters of the dismissals call the original cases politically motivated; critics say overturning them sends a damaging message about accountability for political violence.

The ruling does not alter the historical record but marks a major shift in the attack’s legal aftermath.