Podcast
Former Assistant U.S. Attorney Troy Edwards Edwards, who was a leading prosecutor in the case of the January 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol, joins Terms of Engagement to discuss the Trump Administration’s move to vacate the seditious conspiracy convictions of the Oath Keepers and Proud Boys and what it means for the future of the Department of Justice and the rule of law.
In early 2023, federal juries found members of the Proud Boys and the Oath Keepers guilty of seditious conspiracy, one of the most serious crimes under American law, for their role planning the January 6, 2021 attack on the U.S. Capitol. President Donald Trump’s Department of Justice has moved to vacate those convictions, a legal maneuver that goes beyond the pardons he gave other January 6 defendants and would effectively wipe the cases off the books.
Troy Edwards is a visiting legal fellow at The Lawfare Institute and a former federal prosecutor who served as deputy chief of the DOJ’s National Security Section for the Eastern District of Virginia. He led the prosecution of Oath Keepers founder Stewart Rhodes, who was convicted and received an 18-year prison term but later released after Trump commuted his sentence. Edwards, who resigned after his father-in-law and former FBI Director James Comey was indicted by Trump’s DOJ, joins Terms of Engagement hosts Archon Fung and Stephen Richer to discuss what the erasure of the convictions could mean for the future of the Department of Justice and the rule of law.
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Troy Edwards served as an Assistant United States Attorney in one of the most sensitive offices in the federal system—the Eastern District of Virginia, which covers the Pentagon and CIA headquarters. As deputy chief of the National Security Section, he handled some of the highest-profile espionage cases in the country. Edwards was a member of the prosecution team that secured the landmark seditious conspiracy conviction of Stewart Rhodes, founder of the Oath Keepers, for orchestrating the January 6th attack on the Capitol. Rhodes received an 18-year sentence—the longest of any January 6th defendant, but was released after the sentence was commuted by President Donald Trump.
Now a visiting legal fellow at The Lawfare Institute, Edwards resigned from the DOJ on September 25, 2025, minutes after his father-in-law, former FBI Director James Comey, was indicted on charges of making false statements to Congress and obstruction. In a one-sentence resignation letter addressed to U.S. Attorney Lindsey Halligan, he wrote: “To uphold my oath to the Constitution and country, I hereby resign.” Edwards’s wife, Maurene Comey, was dismissed from her position as an Assistant U.S. Attorney in the Southern District of New York in July 2025 and subsequently sued the Trump administration over her termination. Edwards earned his bachelor’s degree in psychology and neuroscience from Haverford College and his JD from the University of Chicago Law School
Archon Fung is the Winthrop Laflin McCormack Professor of Citizenship and Self-Government at the Harvard Kennedy School and the Director of the Ash Center for Democratic Governance and Innovation. His research explores policies, practices, and institutional designs that deepen the quality of democratic governance with a focus on public participation, deliberation, and transparency. He has authored five books, four edited collections, and over fifty articles appearing in professional journals. He received two S.B.s — in philosophy and physics — and his Ph.D. in political science from MIT.
Stephen Richer is the former elected Maricopa County Recorder, responsible for voter registration, early voting administration, and public recordings in Maricopa County, Arizona, the fourth largest county in the United States. Prior to being an elected official, Stephen worked at several public policy think tanks and as a business transactions attorney. Stephen received his J.D. and M.A. from The University of Chicago and his B.A. from Tulane University. Stephen has been broadly recognized for his work in elections and American Democracy. In 2021, the Arizona Republic named Stephen “Arizonan of the Year.” In 2022, the Maricopa Bar Association awarded Stephen “Public Law Attorney of the Year.” In 2023, Stephen won “Leader of the Year” from the Arizona Capitol Times. And in 2024, Time Magazine named Stephen a “Defender of Democracy.”
The views expressed on this show are those of the hosts alone and do not necessarily represent the positions of the Ash Center or its affiliates.
Coming soon!
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