For people who defended the U.S. Capitol from a mob of Donald Trump’s supporters on Jan. 6, 2021, the Justice Department’s attempt to wipe away convictions for Oath Keepers and Proud Boys convicted of seditious conspiracy for their role in the insurrection is a damning indictment of just how far the institution has fallen.

“It was bullshit,” former U.S. Capitol Police Officer Harry Dunn said.

“Instead of praising the actions of the first responders for protecting elected officials on Jan. 6, Trump and his administration continue their assault on the truth,” former U.S. Capitol Police Sergeant Aquilino Gonell said.

Julie Farnam, who served as assistant director of intelligence for the U.S. Capitol Police during Jan. 6, said the DOJ’s move is evidence of “an erosion of laws generally” in America. Farnam said she had warned department superiors days in advance, telling them that extremists were headed to D.C. and planned to target Congress, and that her warnings were ignored.

“What incentive is there to play by the book?” she said. “I think people who have nefarious intentions are kind of thinking the same thing, and a lot of people will feel now they can get away with bad things, especially in the political realm and politically motivated violence.”

The Justice Department on Tuesday asked a federal appeals court to toss out convictions for onetime Oath Keepers leader Elmer Rhodes and Henry “Enrique” Tarrio, Proud Boys leader. Tarrio received a pardon from Trump last year and had his 22-year prison sentence commuted. Rhodes did not receive a full pardon, but Trump commuted his 18-year sentence. If the federal appeals court goes along with the Justice Department’s request, it would wipe the slate clean for both men.

The DOJ’s move came just a day before a court hearing was scheduled, during which the Proud Boys would have made their case for the appeal, and the DOJ would have had to argue that the Proud Boys’ previous charges should stand. Attorneys for the Oath Keepers and Proud Boys did not respond to HuffPost’s requests for comment. The Justice Department also did not respond to multiple requests by HuffPost for comment.

In a post on X, the Justice Department celebrated the decision, saying: “This ends these years-long, Biden-era weaponized prosecutions. President Trump demanded we stop the two-tiered injustice — and we are delivering. No more rigged system.”

Turning its back on the previous convictions and stopping that hearing short allows the Justice Department to “save face,” said Dunn, who is now running for Congress.

“Now the DOJ doesn’t have to address the appeal, and in that sense, it saves them from being able to have to lie and possibly get disbarred [later for lying],” Dunn said. “This isn’t about justice or setting the record straight. I think the DOJ is doing this specifically so they don’t have to hear the appeal. This is so they don’t have to lie or talk bad about Donald Trump.”

Neither Dunn nor Gonell were necessarily surprised by the DOJ’s move, as Trump and his allies in Congress have systematically downplayed the attack that marred the nation’s perfect record for peaceful transfers of power, left over 140 police officers badly injured, and resulted in the deaths of others. Gonell himself fought off over 40 rioters and was so badly hurt that he was forced into retirement.

Both Rhodes and Tarrio were convicted of seditious conspiracy after months-long trials where jurors were exposed to extensive evidence, including witness testimony and surveillance and police bodycam footage. Jurors learned how Oath Keepers established a massive arsenal of weapons at a hotel just outside Washington, D.C., for a “quick reaction force” and how Rhodes called on Trump to tap his militia to aid in insurrection. The Proud Boys had spent months recruiting people to their group before members stormed into D.C to incite violence, according to witness testimony and communications from the Proud Boys themselves.

The attempt to remove charges from the Proud Boys and Oath Keepers goes against the administration’s claims that it is necessarily tough on crime, Gonell said.

“If this administration really supports the police, law and order and the rule of law, it wouldn’t be fighting so hard to rewrite or erase the violent history of the attack on our democracy and my colleagues,” Gonell said.

But the Justice Department under Trump has seemingly abandoned much of what it achieved in its sprawling Jan. 6 probe during Joe Biden’s administration.

Jan. 6 prosecutors have been fired at the DOJ. Others who brought criminal cases against Trump were purged or demoted. Last May, the Justice Department paid the family of Jan. 6 rioter Ashli Babbitt a $5 million settlement after Babbitt was fatally shot by an officer when she tried to climb through a smashed window in the Speaker’s Lobby.

Tarrio and fellow Proud Boys sued the United States last year, too, demanding $100 million and alleging that their prosecutions were vindictive. A judge dismissed the claim but left a door open for them to refile. They have until the end of the month to do so. Other Jan. 6 rioters, also including Proud Boys, filed a class-action lawsuit against Capitol police, claiming they were “indiscriminately” hit with chemical munitions and that police used “excessive force” against them at the Capitol that day.

If those lawsuits succeed, Dunn said it’s important that people remember who pays for those settlements.

“Who paid for Ashli Babbitt’s settlement money? It came from the government. Who pays for their lawyers? That $100 million the Proud Boys are seeking, that will be coming from the government if they win. They’re suing Capitol Police for treating them badly. That will come from taxpayer money. That’s what people need to understand: who is paying for this. It’s the people reading this right now,” Dunn said.

“We have paid for it in anger, anguish and gaslighting and physical pain,” he added. “We’ve dealt with that, but the American public now has to deal with the pain financially. “

Dunn then went on to note: “This gaslighting happens weekly. For a group of people — the Republicans and Jan. 6 apologists and MAGA Republicans — who want to move on from Jan. 6, they sure keep bringing it up.”

Farnam, who also spent 15 years at the Department of Homeland Security before she joined the U.S. Capitol Police, told HuffPost she is concerned about how the Justice Department’s treatment of the Oath Keepers and Proud Boys might stoke more extremism or political violence.

With Trump in office, she said, far-right extremists don’t “have to be in the shadows anymore.”

Farnam added, “They have been fully embraced.”

The Proud Boys and Oath Keepers aren’t as prominent as they were during Trump’s first term, but Farnam said their tactics have seemingly inspired others.

Threats to members of Congress, their families, staff and the Capitol building itself have increased. In 2024, the agency reported roughly 9,400 threats. In 2025, that number jumped to just under 15,000.

“We’ve seen it directed at Democrats,” Farnam said. “We’ve seen it directed at Republicans. … People feel empowered to be able to do bad things because they think they will have support, they will be a hero, even if they are picked up and charged.”

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