“This is the last of the prosecutions seeking to hold accountable those responsible for the events of January 6,” Judge Amit Mehta wrote in his order dismissing cases against nine people in which he recounted the events of that day. “That book is now closed.”

“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,” Mehta wrote. “The court cannot write a different ending.”

“The government thus asks to absolve these Defendants of crimes against the United States itself,” Mehta wrote. “In this court’s view, that is not in the public interest.”

“But that alone is not a valid basis to deny the motion,” he wrote, adding that “the court must give way to the primacy of the Executive Branch in making charging decisions.”