How many people were actually convicted of seditious conspiracy from j6
Executive summary
Prosecutors secured convictions for seditious conspiracy tied to January 6 that focused on leaders and lieutenants of two extremist groups — the Proud Boys and the Oath Keepers — and most major reporting contemporaneously counts the number of seditious-conspiracy convictions at roughly 14 people, though sources and case developments vary and produce slightly different totals [1] [2] [3] [4].
1. The headline numbers: what the Department of Justice and major outlets reported
The Justice Department announced the conviction of four leaders of the Proud Boys — Enrique Tarrio, Ethan Nordean, Joseph Biggs and Zachary Rehl — for seditious conspiracy and related offenses, a milestone the DOJ framed as convictions of “leaders of both the Proud Boys and the Oath Keepers” for that rare charge [1]. Major outlets reported multiple convictions of Oath Keepers members: an initial conviction of Oath Keepers founder Stewart Rhodes and associates followed by another trial in which four more Oath Keepers were convicted, and DOJ press releases describe additional Oath Keepers sentenced on seditious-conspiracy counts [2] [5] [3].
2. How reporting translates into a tally: why “about 14” is common
Aggregations in encyclopedic and long-form reporting converge on a figure near 14 convicted for seditious conspiracy in connection with Jan. 6: contemporaneous summaries note multiple Oath Keepers convicted in separate trials (including convictions of Rhodes, Kelly Meggs and other members) combined with the four Proud Boys convictions, and some sources explicitly reference 14 convictions being allowed to stand in later developments [3] [4] [2] [1]. Analysts and reporters often cite roughly 14 convictions because the prosecutions produced several rounds of trials and guilty pleas across both groups, and that sum is the best common denominator in public reporting [2] [3].
3. Why different outlets give different counts: evolving pleas, trials and legal outcomes
Counting is complicated because the seditious-conspiracy cases moved in waves: some defendants pleaded guilty to seditious conspiracy or related counts (e.g., Joshua James pleaded guilty early), others were convicted at trial, and still others faced acquittals on that specific charge while being convicted on related offenses; different outlets emphasize different subsets of those outcomes when summarizing totals [6] [3] [7]. Reporting also changed as late sentencing, appeals, and additional press releases came out, so a static number reported at one moment can be superseded by later filings or DOJ statements [1] [5].
4. The legal and historical context that makes the number significant
Seditious conspiracy is a rare, Civil War–era statute prosecutors reserve for conduct that targets the machinery of government; that rarity explains why successful prosecutions of riot participants on this charge drew intense attention and why the handful of convictions — concentrated among leadership figures in organized groups — is consequential even if numerically small relative to the more than 600 total Jan. 6 convictions for a range of crimes the DOJ has reported [8] [1]. Analysts and legal scholars framed the verdicts as landmark because they implicated planning, coordination and use-of-force elements that the statute requires, rather than the mass of misdemeanor and obstruction cases that make up the larger prosecution effort [8] [9].
5. Bottom line and limits of available reporting
Based on the assembled DOJ statements and mainstream reporting, the durable public accounting is that roughly 14 people were convicted of seditious conspiracy in connection with January 6 — principally leaders and key members of the Oath Keepers and four leaders of the Proud Boys — but exact tallies vary in secondary sources as cases evolved with pleas, trials, sentencing and appeals [1] [2] [3] [4]. If a precise, up-to-the-minute roster is required, the public record in DOJ press releases and court dockets should be checked because the sources used here document slightly different snapshots of a moving set of prosecutions [1] [5] [7].