“This is the last of the prosecutions seeking to hold accountable those responsible for the events of January 6. That book is now closed,” U.S. District Judge Amit Mehta wrote in his opinion last week as he “reluctantly” dismissed charges in the last eight criminal cases against Jan. 6 rioters.
They, along with six others, were the only Capitol rioters or conspirators not fully pardoned by President Donald Trump on the day he retook office. (On that day, Trump commuted their sentences instead.)
Because Trump’s Justice Department filed a motion to dismiss the cases against Stewart Rhodes and his fellow Oath Keepers, Mehta had to oblige. But not before he wrote: “Today’s epilogue diminishes the gravity of that day, denigrates the work of the prosecutors and law enforcement officers who secured these convictions, and excuses criminal acts that caused a centuries-long pillar of our democracy — the peaceful transfer of presidential power — to buckle.”
It’s a remarkable and tragic conclusion. The final chapter of Trump’s Big Lie began with his victory in 2024, and this dismissal almost certainly marks its culmination: The anti-democracy thugs won, decisively.
The system barely held on Jan. 6, but it hasn’t held since. And the next time MAGA Republicans lose a national election, they’re in a much better position to successfully pull off the coup that only narrowly failed.
Since Trump issued his mass clemency, at least 97 of the roughly 1,500 pardoned rioters (about 1 in 16) have been arrested, prosecuted or convicted for other crimes, according to a June 2026 Lawfare study. At least 14 of those “have been charged with sex crimes or crimes related to child sexual abuse material (CSAM), and at least six have faced domestic violence charges,” Lawfare’s Katherine Pompilio noted.
The MAGA mob that chanted “Hang Mike Pence” and “Where’s Nancy?” was, for a brief moment, almost universally reviled, even by many Republicans. So despicable was the rioters’ brutally violent rampage that MAGA created conspiracy theories claiming they were antifa supersoldier crisis actors. But soon enough, Trump’s supporters simply embraced the people he called “beautiful,” because MAGA is a cult of personality and believes whatever Trump tells it to believe.
It’s often said by those who’d excuse or downplay Jan. 6 that “the system held,” but far too many people look at the assault as little more than a populist riot that got out of hand. Rather, Jan. 6 was merely the loudest day of Trump’s monthslong self-coup attempt after losing a free and fair election. (I don’t understand what “self-coup” means.)
The Senate had the chance to hold Trump accountable and prevent what should have been an unthinkable political comeback for an unabashed demagogic criminal. But the “World’s Greatest Deliberative Body” — that ultimate of powerful institutions — did not convict him at his second impeachment, weeks after he left office in 2021. Then-Senate GOP leader Mitch McConnell gave a bravura speech putting the entire blame for Jan. 6 on Trump and eviscerating his self-coup attempt, which he said would put American democracy into a “death spiral.” Yet McConnell — who could have easily whipped the nine additional votes needed to convict — voted to acquit, saying the courts would handle Trump. Over the next four years, both federal and state court systems failed to hold Trump accountable.
The system barely held on Jan. 6, but it hasn’t held since. And the next time MAGA Republicans lose a national election, they’re in a much better position to successfully pull off the coup that only narrowly failed.
Think about institutions that held the line on Jan. 6: the vice presidency, the DOJ, the FBI, Congress. They’re all now under the direct authority of election-denying Trump loyalists.
And you can add to those ranks a growing number of Big Lie boosters who now have authority over state and local elections. The New York Times, citing an analysis of data from the Voting Rights Lab, reported last week that nearly 100 election deniers across the country “oversee or help administer elections in counties across the nation where competitive House and Senate races will determine control of Congress.” The Times reported that these people “have either publicly espoused false conspiracy theories that Mr. Trump won the 2020 election or that American elections are rife with fraud, or taken direct action to support those theories.”
On Jan. 5, 2021, America was still a place with a hundred-years-old tradition of peacefully transferring power. But a rage-addicted narcissist — trained by his mentor Roy Cohn to “never admit guilt” and “just deny everything and fight” — ended that tradition because he couldn’t accept being rejected by Americans.
It was a terrible systemic failure that Trump wasn’t convicted at his second impeachment. Just as consequential is the fact that his trials for election tampering in Georgia and in federal court — as well as for allegedly hoarding documents, some classified — never concluded. With the last Jan. 6 cases now swept into the dustbin of history — and belief in Trump’s Big Lie now codified as a MAGA professional prerequisite — it’s hard to argue that America’s institutions truly held the line. It’s even harder to believe they will the next time.
The post Jan. 6 officially ended with this judge’s dismissal — proving the system did not hold appeared first on MS NOW.
