Federal prosecutors on Tuesday moved to dismiss criminal cases against three San Diego-area men charged in connection with the January 2021 breach of the U.S. Capitol, a day after President Donald Trump granted clemency to his supporters who were prosecuted for violently storming the government building that day. In all, at least eight people from San Diego or with strong ties to the area were among those who benefited from the pardons. Trump loyalists convinced that the 2020 presidential election he lost had been “stolen” mobbed the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, injuring about 140 police officers as they attempted to prevent Congress from certifying the election results. Ocean Beach resident Ashli Babbitt was shot and killed by a Capitol Police officer as she tried to climb through a smashed window into the Speaker’s Lobby. On his first day back in office Monday, Trump commuted the sentences of 14 individuals, including the leaders of far-right extremist groups convicted of orchestrating violent plots to stop the peaceful transfer of power, and granted “a full, complete and unconditional pardon” to the roughly 1,500 others who had been charged or convicted of offenses related to that day’s events at the Capitol. The commutations marked the fulfillment of a promise Trump made before he took office but came just eight days after Vice President J.D. Vance said in a Fox News interview that those who “protested peacefully” should be pardoned, but that “if you committed violence on that day, obviously you shouldn’t be pardoned.” Among the San Diegans pardoned was Josiah Hueso, the nephew of former Democratic California State Sen. Ben Hueso. Josiah’s father, Francisco Hueso, told the Union-Tribune on Tuesday that his son’s case has been a “horrible nightmare” for the family. “My son was not one of the crazies; he was just curious,” Francisco Hueso said, calling his prosecution a “miscarriage of justice.” A screengrab of CNN allegedly shows Josiah Hueso giving an interview during the Jan. 6, 2021, breach of the U.S. Capitol. (Courtesy of U.S. District Court) Josiah Hueso, whose interview with CNN at the Capitol helped investigators identify him, did not engage in violence. He pleaded guilty to a single misdemeanor related to unlawfully entering the Capitol and was sentenced to three years of probation. His father said Josiah showed little emotion when he informed his father of the pardon Monday night. “He’s numb,” Francisco Hueso said. “He just wants to see what happens.” Trump’s executive order directs the attorney general to “administer and effectuate the immediate issuance of certificates of pardon” to each defendant who was pardoned. While most of the San Diego-linked defendants had already been sentenced after pleading guilty or being convicted at trial, three still had active cases in federal court in Washington, D.C., where the Capitol breach cases were being prosecuted. Those active cases were the ones that prosecutors moved to dismiss Tuesday, with a judge quickly granting one of the dismissals. Jonathan Andrew Humphreys of San Diego, the founder of a security company, was set to be sentenced next month after pleading guilty in October to counts of disorderly conduct in a Capitol building and parading, demonstrating, or picketing in a Capitol building. But prosecutors made a motion Tuesday to dismiss the charges, citing Trump’s executive order “as the reason for this dismissal.” Moments later, U.S. District Judge Jia Cobb granted the motion and dismissed the case. Humphreys could not be reached for comment Tuesday. According to court documents related to his guilty plea, Humphreys entered the Capitol after rioters broke through barricades and breached the building. He later jumped through a broken window next to the Senate Wing doors, walked through various parts of the building and ended up in the Rotunda, where he and others refused to move, forcing officers to push them back. Prosecutors also filed a motion to dismiss the case of El Cajon resident Erik Herrera, who a day after the Capitol breach posted on Instagram a picture of himself wearing a gas mask and holding a stack of papers inside the Senate Parliamentarian’s office. A jury convicted Herrera of a felony charge of obstruction of an official proceeding and four misdemeanor charges related to entering a restricted building. A judge sentenced him to four years in prison. But Herrera’s conviction on the felony count was overturned on appeal last year, and he was released from prison. He was scheduled to be resentenced for the misdemeanor counts Friday before prosecutors made the motion to dismiss his case. Prosecutors filed an identical motion to dismiss charges against Chula Vista resident Howard Raymond Freelove. Like Humphreys, he was charged last year after long being on the radar of investigators. Prosecutors charged Freelove with four misdemeanors relating to disorderly conduct, entering restricted grounds and parading inside a Capitol building, alleging that Freelove entered the building about 20 minutes after other people first broke into the Rotunda. The FBI and prosecutors alleged that he wandered around the Rotunda and Statuary Hall while filming on his cellphone for about 20 minutes and then left. Freelove — who made headlines later that same year when Chula Vista police identified him as the man who went on an obscenity-filled tirade inside a Chula Vista coffee shop displaying a Black Lives Matter sign in its window — could not be reached for comment Tuesday. James McGrew is seen outside the U.S. Capitol building on Jan. 6, 2021, during the insurrection. (Courtesy of U.S. District Court) The other local defendant who appeared to benefit most greatly from Trump’s pardons was James Burton McGrew, a former Marine and North County resident who pleaded guilty to assaulting police officers at the Capitol. McGrew admitted in a plea agreement that he struck one police officer outside of the Rotunda; struck another officer and lunged for his baton; and during another scuffle successfully snatched a baton from a third officer, but then handed it back. He also admitted that near the Lower West Tunnel entrance, he was handed a roughly 5-foot wooden handrail with metal brackets attached that he launched over his head toward officers in the tunnel, according to his plea. It appeared to strike an officer’s visor or shield. McGrew was sentenced to a total of six years and six months in prison and as of Tuesday had served about half that amount, when accounting for the time he spent in custody before he was sentenced. Federal prison records showed McGrew was no longer in custody Tuesday. John Pierce, an attorney who represented McGrew and other Capitol breach defendants, told The Associated Press he was “pleasantly surprised” that Trump’s pardons went as far as they did, considering Vance’s recent comments. “I do think it showed a lot of courage by President Trump to pardon everybody,” said Pierce, who added that clemency for all defendants was justified because, he contended, they couldn’t get a fair trial in the nation’s heavily Democratic capital. In this image from U.S. Capitol Police video, released and annotated by the Justice Department in the Statement of Facts supporting an arrest warrant, Joshua Abate, circled in green, Micah Coomer, circled in red, and Dodge Dale Hellonen, circled in blue, appear inside the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, in Washington. (Justice Department via AP) Other San Diego-linked defendants who were among those pardoned included then-active duty Camp Pendleton Marine Micah Coomer, who admitted to entering the Capitol with two other Marines. He pleaded guilty to one misdemeanor count and was sentenced in 2023 to four years of probation and community service for 279 hours — one hour for every Marine killed or wounded fighting in the Civil War. Jeffrey “Alex” Smith, an Army veteran and longtime Coronado resident who later moved to Colorado, was sentenced in 2022 to 90 days in custody and two years of probation on a misdemeanor charge of parading or demonstrating inside a Capitol building. Dulzura resident Philip Weisbecker, who previously lived in Ocean Beach, pleaded guilty to the same misdemeanor charge and was sentenced to 30 days in custody and two years of probation. San Diego-area U.S. Attorney Tara McGrath, who is expected to be asked for her resignation by the Trump administration in the coming days or weeks, referred questions about the pardons to federal prosecutors in the District of Columbia. On the four-year mark of the Capitol breach earlier this month, McGrath’s office released a lengthy statement lauding five assistant U.S. attorneys and one analyst from her office who helped the Department of Justice investigate and prosecute more than 60 of the cases, which included nine trials. “We are extremely proud of our contribution to this extraordinary investigative and prosecutorial undertaking,” McGrath said in the statement. “These cases hold accountable the individuals who battered, ransacked, and brought terror into the seat of our democracy. This collective effort has been vital to fortify the rule of law and serves as a reminder that armed threats, violence, and insurrection are not protected under the ruse of a lawful protest.”