1. United States
2. Iowa
3. Letter

I am your constituent, and I am writing to urge you to publicly oppose the Justice Department's April 14, 2026 motion to vacate the seditious conspiracy convictions of the leaders of the Proud Boys and the Oath Keepers — and to take the specific actions I've listed at the end of this letter. On Tuesday, April 14, 2026, U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro's office filed a motion in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit asking the court to vacate the convictions of twelve defendants and dismiss the charges with prejudice. Not reduce their sentences. Not grant clemency. Erase the convictions entirely, so they can never be charged for these crimes again. So it is, legally, as if the crimes never happened. I want you to understand what these convictions actually were before they are erased from the record. Stewart Rhodes, the founder of the Oath Keepers, was sentenced to 18 years in federal prison after a jury convicted him of seditious conspiracy. Prosecutors proved he organized armed "quick reaction force" teams at a Virginia hotel and rallied his followers to prevent the lawful transfer of presidential power, even warning they might have to "rise up in insurrection." Ethan Nordean, Joseph Biggs, and Zachary Rehl of the Proud Boys received sentences of 18, 17, and 15 years respectively. Dominic Pezzola was caught on video smashing a Capitol window with a stolen police riot shield. Oath Keepers members Kelly Meggs, Kenneth Harrelson, Jessica Watkins, Roberto Minuta, Edward Vallejo, Joseph Hackett, and David Moerschel round out the twelve defendants named in the motion. Every one of them was convicted by a jury of ordinary American citizens who sat through weeks of evidence and deliberated before returning guilty verdicts. Federal judges imposed the sentences. That process — that fundamental process — is what is being discarded here. It is being discarded by the same administration whose leader still calls January 6th "a day of love and peace," and by a Justice Department spokesperson who publicly described the motion as ending "Biden-era weaponized prosecutions" — the language of political grievance, not prosecutorial discretion. Let me be clear about what dismissal with prejudice actually means in plain English. It means these people get their gun rights back. It means no future administration can ever charge them for what they did. It means the legal record that an organized, armed conspiracy attacked the United States Capitol in an attempt to stop the transfer of power will be permanently deleted. A former deputy in the DOJ's own Capitol Siege Section confirmed this week that without these convictions, the defendants will not face the collateral consequences — including the firearms prohibition — that come with a felony record. This is not speculation about what happens when January 6th defendants face no accountability. We already have evidence. Since Trump pardoned over 1,500 January 6th defendants in January 2025, multiple pardoned rioters have already been convicted of new crimes — including child sexual abuse. One received a life sentence for molesting children. Another received four years for possession of child sexual abuse material. The pardons did not prompt reflection or rehabilitation, and now the same DOJ wants to erase even the sedition convictions of the organizers. Over 140 police officers were assaulted on January 6th. They were beaten with flagpoles, baseball bats, and batons. They were pepper-sprayed and tased. They were crushed in doorways. Officers have testified under oath about the trauma they still carry. What does it say to every one of those officers when the organizers of the attack have their convictions erased? What does it say to anyone who might be asked to defend our democracy in the future? Here is what I am asking you to do: 1 Issue a public statement opposing this motion. Today. Silence from my elected representative on this is not something I am willing to accept. 2 Call for congressional hearings. Congress needs to demand testimony from the former prosecutors who won these cases, from the law enforcement officers who were assaulted, and from U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro — whose name is on these filings — about who ordered this and why. 3 Support legislation that prevents the executive branch from vacating seditious conspiracy convictions with prejudice, protecting the legal and historical record of attacks on our democratic institutions from being erased by the people who benefited from them. 4 Stand publicly with the officers who defended the Capitol. Clearly, and without equivocation. You swore an oath to the Constitution. The people whose convictions are being erased this week conspired to subvert that same Constitution. I need to know which side of that you are on. I will be paying close attention to your response, and so will my neighbors. This is the kind of vote, and the kind of silence, that constituents remember. Respectfully, a constituent who expects better.