The Department of Justice is seeking to vacate the January 6 convictions of 12 former members of the Proud Boys and Oath Keepers. These individuals were previously convicted of sedition security. The DOJ is asking the D.C. Appeals Court to completely dismiss these cases with prejudice, meaning the cases will be permanently closed.
Attorneys who previously prosecuted January 6 cases said this move was a major blow to their work. The DOJ said in a short filing that this action is in the interests of justice.
Trump did not pardon everyone, though. Stewart Rhodes, head of the Oath Keepers, had his sentence commuted. Rhodes was facing 18 years in prison and had the most serious convictions against him. These 14 individuals were released from their sentences after the commutations, but their cases were still making their way through the appeals process.
The Justice Department also released a report alleging that the Biden Justice Department weaponized the agency against its perceived enemies. This report is the first product of the so-called Weaponization Working Group, which former Attorney General Pam Bondi stood up. The stated goal was to uncover instances of the Biden administration using the levers of government power to achieve political ends.
The report concerns the Biden DOJ's application of the FACE Act, which criminalizes interfering with someone who is seeking to access reproductive care. The report alleges that the Biden administration selectively enforced the act by protecting abortion clinics, but not other pregnancy centers that oppose abortion rights. It also alleges that the Biden administration coordinated with pro-abortion rights advocacy groups, exercised prosecutorial misconduct, including screening jurors based on religion, and sought longer sentences for defendants who oppose abortion rights than for those who support those rights.
A former leader of the Biden era's DOJ Civil Rights Division says that that team enforced the law evenhandedly. The department has fired personnel who worked on those Biden era FACE Act cases who had previously remained employed at the Department of Justice.
Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche defended President Trump's contact with the Department of Justice. Blanche stated that this type of communication from President Trump should make every American happy, because it means that there's an executive, a chief executive, that is making sure every one of his Cabinet members are working as hard as they should.
The DOJ continues to investigate the Fed chair, Jerome Powell, including a visit to the construction site where the Fed headquarters is undergoing a renovation. Employees from the D.C. U.S. attorney's office made an unannounced visit to the site of the Fed renovation. They were trying to check on progress at the site, after a federal judge threw out subpoenas the Department of Justice issued to the Fed last month.
The federal judge said that there was abundant evidence that the main purpose of these subpoenas and this investigation was to harass and pressure Fed Chair Jerome Powell to either resign or yield to President Trump's policy demands. Outside counsel for the Fed e-mailed the employees who tried to seek access and told them that the federal judge had concluded that their interest in this site was "pretextual" and asked that they commit not to seek to communicate with the Fed outside of the presence of counsel.
The Department of Justice is seeking to vacate the January 6 convictions of 12 former members of the Proud Boys and Oath Keepers. These individuals were previously convicted of seditious security. The DOJ is asking the D.C. Appeals Court to completely dismiss these cases with prejudice, meaning the cases will be permanently closed.
This move is a "major blow" to attorneys who previously prosecuted these January 6 cases, many of which have already been wiped away. The DOJ said in a short filing that this action is in the interests of justice. The cases involve 14 members of the extremist groups, Proud Boys and Oath Keepers, whose sentences President Trump commuted.
Trump did not pardon everyone, though. Stewart Rhodes, head of the Oath Keepers, had his sentence commuted. Rhodes was facing 18 years in prison and had the most serious convictions against him. These 14 individuals were released from their sentences after the commutations, but their cases were still making their way through the appeals process.
Some former DOJ attorneys said that this was a reminder that the administration does not care about constitutional due process.
The Justice Department also released a report alleging that the Biden Justice Department weaponized the agency against its perceived enemies. This report is the first product of the so-called Weaponization Working Group, which former Attorney General Pam Bondi stood up. The stated goal was to uncover instances of the Biden administration using the levers of government power to achieve political ends.
The report concerns the Biden DOJ's application of the FACE Act, which criminalizes interfering with someone who is seeking to access reproductive care. The report alleges that the Biden administration selectively enforced the act by protecting abortion clinics, but not other pregnancy centers that oppose abortion rights. It also alleges that the Biden administration coordinated with pro-abortion rights advocacy groups, exercised prosecutorial misconduct, including screening jurors based on religion, and sought longer sentences for defendants who oppose abortion rights than for those who support those rights.
A former leader of the Biden era’s DOJ Civil Rights Division says that that team enforced the law evenhandedly. The department has fired personnel who worked on those Biden era FACE Act cases who had previously remained employed at the Department of Justice.
Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche defended President Trump's contact with the Department of Justice. Blanche stated that this type of communication from President Trump should make every American happy, because it means that there's an executive, a chief executive, that is making sure every one of his Cabinet members are working as hard as they should.
The DOJ continues to investigate the Fed chair, Jerome Powell, including a visit to the construction site where the Fed headquarters is undergoing a renovation. Employees from the D.C. U.S. attorney's office made an unannounced visit to the site of the Fed renovation. They were trying to check on progress at the site, after a federal judge threw out subpoenas the Department of Justice issued to the Fed last month.
The federal judge said that there was abundant evidence that the main purpose of these subpoenas and this investigation was to harass and pressure Fed Chair Jerome Powell to either resign or yield to President Trump's policy demands. Outside counsel for the Fed e-mailed the employees who tried to seek access and told them that the federal judge had concluded that their interest in this site was "pretextual" and asked that they commit not to seek to communicate with the Fed outside of the presence of counsel. The DOJ's actions will be monitored closely by those who worked on the original January 6 cases.
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The sources also report that the number is 14 individuals, not 12, whose January 6 convictions the DOJ is seeking to dismiss.