U.S. District Judge Timothy Kelly concluded that he had no power to second-guess prosecutors once they decided to vacate the convictions.

It’s over.

The Justice Department’s most significant case stemming from the Jan. 6, 2021 attack on the Capitol — the seditious conspiracy convictions of high-ranking members of the far right Proud Boys — has officially been erased.

U.S. District Judge Timothy Kelly, who presided over the six-month trial that led to the jury convictions, reluctantly granted a Justice Department motion to drop the case on Friday, concluding that he had no power to second-guess prosecutors once they decided to abandon it.

“In light of fundamental separation of powers principles … the proper course here is for the Court simply to grant the motion in full,” Kelly concluded, dismissing the case “with prejudice,” which means a future Justice Department is barred from revisiting the charges.

“No one should mistake the Court’s granting of the Government’s motion for its agreement with those decisions,” the judge added.

Kelly’s decision ends one of the last lingering loose ends from the violent attack on the Capitol by a mob of President Donald Trump’s supporters, a riot that threatened the transfer of presidential power from Trump to Joe Biden, forcing Congress to flee for safety and leaving more than 100 police officers injured.

During trial, prosecutors cast the group’s leaders — including its national chair Enrique Tarrio — as a pivotal driver of the violence that day, assembling a “fighting force” that arrived at the Capitol even while Trump addressed a crowd of supporters near the White House. Members of the group were present for and involved in multiple breaches of police lines. One of them, Dominic Pezzola, ignited the breach of the Capitol building when he smashed a Senate-wing window with a stolen police riot shield. They later celebrated their roles in the breach.

On his first day back in power last year, Trump pardoned the vast majority of people who participated in the riot and ordered his Justice Department to dismiss hundreds of ongoing cases. He also pardoned Tarrio, who Kelly had sentenced to 22 years in prison — the lengthiest sentence handed down to anyone linked to the attack.

But Trump notably left convictions in place for Tarrio’s alleged co-conspirators: Ethan Nordean, Joe Biggs, Zachary Rehl and Pezzola. Instead, Trump commuted their sentences, which ranged from 10 to 18 years. The four men continued to fight their convictions on appeal.

Earlier this year, just after Todd Blanche was elevated to become acting attorney general, the Justice Department moved to vacate the convictions and end the case for good. They also took similar steps to erase the convictions of the leader of the far-right Oath Keepers, a group led by Stewart Rhodes that also played a key role in the Capitol breach. U.S. District Judge Amit Mehta, who presided over the Oath Keepers trial, is still weighing DOJ’s motion.

The Proud Boys quickly cast Kelly’s decision as a victory for their group and a vindication.

“We took the worst they threw at us, the raids, the solitary, the lies and we stood tall. Trump dropped the pardons and now the rest is crumbling. Justice is SERVED!” Tarrio posted on X shortly after Kelly’s ruling. “Proud Boys don’t lose. We WIN. This is OUR victory.”

Though Kelly concluded he had no power to interfere with the decision to drop the Proud Boys case, the Trump appointee made his displeasure clear, saying DOJ was simply carrying out Trump’s wishes.

“President Trump’s views about the prosecution of those who attacked the U.S. Capitol on January 6 — whether those views are based on fact or fiction — are well known,” Kelly said. The judge also noted that the prosecution of the Proud Boys leaders began in the final days of Trump’s first term, not under Biden.

“The decisions to issue the Executive Order and to abandon this prosecution — even after the Government secured convictions for serious crimes relating to the attack on the Capitol on January 6 — are solely the Executive’s,” Kelly wrote.