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By Hannah Rabinowitz, CNN

(CNN) — The Justice Department moved to dismiss the seditious conspiracy convictions of Proud Boys and Oath Keepers members Tuesday, undoing one of the Biden administration’s most celebrated victories against those who it said inspired the January 6, 2021, attack on American democracy.

If a judge approves the dismissals, it would erase the most serious convictions from the sprawling investigation of the US Capitol riot, one of the largest federal investigations in US history.

President Donald Trump has long lambasted the January 6 prosecutions as an injustice against his supporters, even referring to those in jail as “hostages.”

On his first day in office, Trump issued pardons to over 1,000 people convicted in the attack — every defendant except for 14 people, each of whom had their sentences commuted. One of those people was pardoned in March 2025, and the department now says twelve others — eight members and associates of the Oath Keepers and four from the Proud Boys — should have their convictions dismissed.

Dismissing the convictions would also be a major blow to the Biden Justice Department, which across three trials had argued that the attack on the US Capitol was more than just a political protest that got out of control, but rather a violent attack on democracy and an effort to keep Joe Biden out of the Oval Office by any means necessary.

The defendants whose convictions may be dismissed are Oath Keepers leader Stewart Rhodes and associates Kelly Meggs, Kenneth Harrelson, Jessica Watkins, Roberto Minuta, Edward Vallejo, Joseph Hackett, and David Moerschel; and Proud Boys associates Ethan Nordean, Joseph Biggs, Zachary Rehl and Dominic Pezzola.

A spokesperson for US Attorney for DC Jeanine Pirro’s office declined to comment.

CNN is reaching out to attorneys for the 12 defendants.

After the attack in the waning days of Trump’s first administration, the Justice Department and FBI launched a nationwide manhunt to identify and arrest rioters, which quickly turned into the biggest criminal probe in US history. Prosecutors charged more than 1,580 people and secured roughly 1,270 convictions.

Trump left office just two weeks after the riot and has since repeatedly called January 6 “a day of love and peace” and claimed his supporters posed “zero threat.” His comments are belied by hundreds of video clips of Trump supporters beating police with flagpoles, batons, wooden clubs and baseball bats, deploying stun guns and chemical sprays, and engaging in hand-to-hand combat with police officers.

This story has been updated with additional reporting.

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Por Annie Grayer, CNN

Los representantes Eric Swalwell y Tony Gonzales renunciaron al Congreso este martes, momentos antes de que sus colegas en la Cámara de Representantes se prepararan para iniciar su rápida destitución.

El demócrata y el republicano evitaron por poco la casi segura humillación pública de una votación de expulsión en el pleno. Sin embargo, aunque lograron esquivar la consecuencia más dura posible para un miembro del Congreso, ambos abandonan sus cargos en el Capitolio envueltos en escándalos separados que provocaron caídas políticas de alto perfil.

Las dos renuncias, cuyos planes se anunciaron con pocos minutos de diferencia la noche del lunes, representan un momento impactante en la Cámara de Representantes de Estados Unidos, donde la presión de legisladores de ambos partidos por rendición de cuentas había vuelto prácticamente insostenible la permanencia de ambos en el Congreso.

“Lamento profundamente ante mi familia, mi equipo y mis electores los errores de juicio que cometí en el pasado. Lucharé contra la grave y falsa acusación en mi contra; sin embargo, debo asumir la responsabilidad por los errores que sí cometí”, escribió Swalwell en su carta de renuncia dirigida al presidente de la Cámara, Mike Johnson, con efecto inmediato.

“Soy consciente de las gestiones por llevar a cabo una votación inmediata de expulsión en mi contra y contra otros miembros. Expulsar a alguien del Congreso sin el debido proceso, a los pocos días de una acusación, es incorrecto. Pero también es incorrecto que mis electores me tengan distraído de mis funciones”, continuó, al añadir que trabajará con su equipo “en los próximos días” para garantizar la atención a su distrito.

La renuncia de Gonzales, efectiva a las 11:59 p.m. (hora de Miami), también se leyó en el registro de la Cámara.

Swalwell anunció su renuncia días después de que CNN y el San Francisco Chronicle reportaran que una excolaboradora lo acusó de agresión sexual, describiendo una noche de consumo de alcohol que terminó con una relación sexual no consentida. Además de esa acusación, otras tres mujeres dijeron a CNN que Swalwell incurrió en conductas sexuales inapropiadas, incluido el envío de fotos desnudo no solicitadas y mensajes explícitos.

La renuncia del demócrata por California se produce inmediatamente después del anuncio de una investigación del Comité de Ética de la Cámara y en medio de crecientes presiones de colegas de ambos partidos para que dimita. Swalwell, quien ha negado repetidamente las acusaciones, ya había suspendido su aspiración a la gubernatura de California, aunque eso no frenó los llamados para que deje el cargo. También enfrenta una investigación por parte de la Fiscalía de Manhattan.

Por su parte, Gonzales anunció su renuncia en medio de su propia investigación por parte del Comité de Ética de la Cámara. El mes pasado, el republicano por Texas reconoció haber tenido una relación extramarital con una colaboradora que posteriormente se suicidó. También enfrenta acusaciones de haber enviado mensajes de texto obscenos a una exempleada de campaña, señalamientos a los que no ha respondido públicamente.

No estaba claro si los legisladores ya contaban con los votos necesarios para expulsar a Swalwell y Gonzales, pero miembros de ambos partidos habían estado trabajando para reunir el apoyo de dos tercios de la Cámara requerido para destituirlos, lo que hacía que la amenaza de expulsión fuera real.

Las renuncias ayudan tanto a líderes republicanos como demócratas a evitar el complejo proceso de una votaci

By Tierney Sneed, CNN

(CNN) — The historians who are suing over the Trump administration’s eschewal of a Watergate-era records retention law for presidential documents said Tuesday that the National Archives won’t agree not to destroy those records while their case is litigated.

The American Historical Association is seeking an emergency court order in a lawsuit it filed last week in the wake of a Justice Department memo that said the Presidential Records Act is unconstitutional.

The Presidential Records Act requires presidents and their staff to preserve White House records and turn those records over to the National Archives at the end of their administrations.

The law was instrumental in the chain of events that led to President Donald Trump’s prosecution for allegedly mishandling classified documents that he took from the White House at the end of his first term.

Earlier this month, a Justice Department office that gives legal advice to the executive branch said it had concluded the law was unconstitutional. The opinion, from the Justice Department Office of Legal Counsel, told the president he was no longer obligated to comply with it.

In filings Tuesday, the historians — who are being joined in the case by the left-leaning government transparency group American Oversight — said that, absent a court intervention, presidential records they intend to use for their research “will be irretrievably lost.”

“DOJ has no authority to direct the President to ignore a constitutionally-compliant statute, and its instruction that the President may do so violates the separation of powers,” the challengers wrote.

A lawyer for the plaintiffs had reached out to the Justice Department seeking assurances that presidential records wouldn’t be destroyed while the case played out, according to the filings. The Justice Department said that it could not agree to those stipulations because it was “not yet in a position to make additional representations about the Government’s approach to those issues,” according to an email exchange included in the filings.

Specifically, the challengers had asked the National Archives to agree that it would not destroy records it maintains under the law. They also wanted an agreement that the Archives would continue to make presidential documents from prior administrations — including the first Trump term — available for public records request, as contemplated by the Presidential Records Act.

They asked for assurances that White House staff will preserve documents covered under the law and that administration personnel would also follow the law’s requirements for preserving communications sent on messaging apps like Signal and WhatsApp.

Neither the Justice Department nor the National Archives immediately responded to CNN request for comment. The White House referred CNN to the DOJ on the latest filings. The White House previously said that Trump “is committed to preserving records from his historic Administration and he will maintain a rigorous records retention program.”

“Staff should retain materials that reflect the performance of their duties, establish an administrative record, are of historical significance, or may be needed in litigation,” White House spokesperson Abigail Jackson said in an April 3 statement that stopped short of committing that those documents would eventually be handed over to the National Archives.

“The administration is already discussing with NARA how to move forward,” she said, referring to the National Archives.

The classified documents prosecution against Trump was shut down after he won reelection in 2024, and while a ruling dismissing the charges was still on appeal. Trump’s bitter feelings towards the National Archives

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