The Justice Department scrubs January 6 news releases from its website, removing posts tied to criminal charges, convictions and sentencings from the 6 January 2021 Capitol attack. The move comes as the Trump administration keeps rewriting the public record around the assault on the US Capitol.
Todd Blanche and the purge
The department described the removed material as "partisan propaganda" and said it was stripping its website of records tied to what it called the Biden administration’s weaponization. That language matters because the deleted pages were not generic commentary; they documented specific prosecutions, including criminal charges, convictions and sentencings that made the Capitol attack traceable in public records.
Todd Blanche, the acting attorney general, has not ruled out payouts for rioters convicted of violence. On Monday, the Justice Department announced a $1.776bn fund to compensate Trump allies who feel they were unjustly investigated and prosecuted, widening the practical stakes for people whose cases were handled in the aftermath of the attack.
Proud Boys and Oath Keepers
News releases on seditious conspiracy cases against members of the Proud Boys and the Oath Keepers were among the items removed. Last month, the department asked a federal appeals court to vacate those convictions, and on Thursday the court granted that request.
Friday brought the next move: the Justice Department moved to dismiss the cases against the group members. That sequence shows the website purge is not happening in isolation; it sits alongside courtroom action that has already started to unwind some of the most serious January 6 cases.
January 2025 pardons
Trump pardoned, commuted prison sentences of or vowed to dismiss the cases of all of the 1,500-plus people charged with crimes during the Capitol assault on his first day back in office in January 2025. The people charged included defendants convicted of attacking officers with makeshift weapons such as flagpoles, a hockey stick and a crutch.
Friday’s removals therefore do more than hide old press releases. They narrow public access to the department’s own record of how the January 6 cases were built, prosecuted and sentenced, while the administration pushes a version of events that treats those proceedings as political overreach rather than the legal aftermath of the attack.
