Trump's DOJ moved to vacate seditious conspiracy convictions against Oath Keepers and Proud Boys leaders

Pardoned. Then Acquitted on the Record. The DOJ Didn't Just Free the January 6 Leaders — It Erased the Verdict.

When Trump pardoned the January 6 defendants in January 2025, most coverage focused on the sentences being wiped. Less coverage focused on what came next: the Department of Justice returning to court to vacate the underlying convictions themselves.

The Legal Distinction

A pardon releases a person from punishment. It does not erase the conviction. A vacatur does. The DOJ's motions, filed months after the pardons, asked federal judges to formally undo the jury verdicts in the seditious conspiracy cases against Oath Keepers founder Stewart Rhodes and Proud Boys leader Enrique Tarrio. The government that prosecuted them was now the government asking judges to pretend the verdicts never happened.

What Was Vacated

Rhodes was convicted in November 2022 of seditious conspiracy — the charge that he coordinated an armed plot to obstruct the certification of the 2020 election. Tarrio was convicted in May 2023 of the same charge. Both cases were built on months of trial evidence, including encrypted Signal messages, witness testimony, and video footage. Federal juries reached unanimous guilty verdicts.

The Precedent

Federal prosecutors vacating jury verdicts in high-profile political cases, at the direction of an administration whose leader was the target of those same plots, has no modern precedent. The AP reported the motions as filed. The judges have discretion to accept or reject them.