- United States
- Utah
- Letter
I need you to demand a full public accounting of who ordered the DOJ to vacate Stewart Rhodes' seditious conspiracy conviction — and why. A jury convicted him. A federal judge sentenced him to 18 years. Judge Amit Mehta, who presided over the case, made clear there was no fault with the evidence and no prosecutorial error. The DOJ erased this conviction anyway.
This is not a pardon. A vacatur removes the conviction entirely. Rhodes is no longer a convicted felon. He can now own firearms and return to Washington, D.C. This is the man who stashed weapons outside the capital on January 6th and later said his only regret was not bringing rifles. Trump himself said these defendants "could have done things that were not acceptable for a full pardon" — so what changed between that statement and this vacatur?
The American people deserve a straight answer before the midterms. With this conviction erased, what deters armed groups from showing up at our polling places? I want you on record demanding transparency: who gave the order, and on what legal basis. Silence on this is not acceptable.