A US federal judge has reluctantly dismissed the seditious conspiracy case against Stewart Rhodes, founder of the far-right Oath Keepers militia, and five other members, after the Trump administration's Justice Department moved to have the convictions overturned and the case dropped entirely. The defendants had been convicted by juries of attempting to overthrow the government by force in connection with the 6 January 2021 Capitol riot, with Rhodes originally sentenced to 18 years in prison.

US District Judge Amit Mehta, who had previously called Rhodes "an ongoing threat and peril to this country," said he had little choice but to grant the dismissal following the Justice Department's request, which came after President Trump pardoned nearly all defendants charged over the Capitol riot on his first day back in office. Mehta wrote that the move "diminishes the gravity of that day, denigrates the work of the prosecutors and law enforcement officers who secured these convictions, and excuses criminal acts that caused a centuries-long pillar of our democracy—the peaceful transfer of presidential power—to buckle."