A Trump-appointed federal judge on Friday reluctantly dismissed the Jan.6 prosecution of four Proud Boys members, saying the law left him no authority to block the Justice Department's request.U.S.
District Judge Timothy Kelly granted the Justice Department's motion to dismiss the case with prejudice against Ethan Nordean, Joseph Biggs, Zachary Rehl and Dominic Pezzola after a federal appeals court had already vacated their convictions.In a seven-page opinion, Kelly said longstanding separation-of-powers principles leave charging decisions to the executive branch, meaning he could not require the Justice Department to maintain a prosecution it had decided to drop.In this Jan.6, 2021, photo, rioters, including Dominic Pezzola, center with police shield, are confronted by U.S.
Capitol Police officers outside the Senate Chamber inside the Capitol, Wednesday, Jan.6, 2021, in Washington.
(AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta) DOJ SEEKS TO VACATE JAN 6 CONVICTIONS IN SWEEPING MOVE TIED TO TRUMP ORDER"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.Pezzola, who was convicted of assaulting police, robbery and destroying government property, was found guilty of stealing a Capitol Police riot shield before using it to smash a Capitol window, creating what prosecutors said was the first breach point through which hundreds of rioters entered the building.He was acquitted of seditious conspiracy but convicted on multiple other felony counts.Meanwhile, Nordean, Biggs and Rehl were convicted of seditious conspiracy and several other felonies related to the Jan.
6 Capitol attack, including conspiracy to obstruct Congress' certification of the 2020 presidential election, obstruction of ...