Judge ‘reluctantly’ approves DOJ request to drop Jan. 6 charges against Oath Keepers

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White House Headlines - August 5, 2026

White House Headlines - August 5, 2026

A federal judge “reluctantly” agreed on Tuesday to drop criminal charges against eight members of the right-wing extremist Oath Keepers group who were convicted for their participation in the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol.

D.C.-based Judge Amit Mehta granted the Justice Department’s motion to dismiss indictments against the militia group’s founder, Stewart Rhodes, and others, some of whom had been convicted on seditious conspiracy charges.

Mehta made clear that while he thought the government’s decision to abandon the prosecutions was “not in the public interest,” there was no legal basis to deny it.

“This court does strongly disagree,” he wrote. “But that alone is not a valid basis to deny the motion. The court must give way to the........

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