A federal judge granted the Department of Justice‘s request to vacate the seditious conspiracy convictions of Proud Boys members, tossing the most serious criminal judgments stemming from the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol riot.

U.S. District Judge Timothy Kelly, an appointee of President Donald Trump, dismissed with prejudice the indictment against former Proud Boys Ethan Nordean, Joseph Biggs, Zachary Rehl, and Dominic Pezzola, closing a case that had resulted in some of the most significant convictions arising from the Capitol riot.

The ruling follows a series of actions by the Trump administration in which the president commuted the sentences of Nordean, Biggs, Rehl, and Pezzola while issuing a full pardon to former Proud Boys chairman Enrique Tarrio. In April, the Justice Department asked the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia to vacate the four men’s convictions and remand the case so prosecutors could seek dismissal. The appeals court granted that request in May.

In Friday’s seven-page opinion, Kelly said the executive branch has broad constitutional authority over charging decisions and that precedent required the court to grant the government’s unopposed motion. In dismissing the case with prejudice, Kelly’s order permanently bars the federal government from bringing the same charges against the four defendants again.

“The Executive’s primacy in criminal charging decisions is long settled,” Kelly wrote, adding that courts have “no power” to deny a prosecutor’s request to dismiss charges simply because they disagree with the government’s decision.

Kelly emphasized, however, that granting the motion should not be viewed as an endorsement of the administration’s handling of Jan. 6 prosecutions.

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