(Headline USA) A federal judge on Friday barred Oath Keepers founder Stewart Rhodes from entering Washington, D.C., without the court’s approval after President Donald Trump commuted the right-wing group leader’s 18-year prison sentence.
Rhodes was convicted of seditious conspiracy for helping orchestrate the brouhaha at the U.S. Capitol four years ago, which delayed certification of the highly disputed 2020 presidential election in favor of Democrat Joe Biden and forced the Joint Session of Congress to bypass several challenges that Republican lawmakers intended to wage.
U.S. District Judge Amit Mehta issued the ban two days after Rhodes visited the Capitol, where he met with at least one lawmaker, chatted with others and defended his actions during the mass uprising on Jan. 6, 2021. Rhodes was released from a Maryland prison a day earlier.
Mehta’s order also applies to seven other newly freed political dissidents who were convicted of charges in the Capitol breach but not fully pardoned by Trump. The order prohibits them from entering the Capitol building or surrounding grounds without the court’s permission.
Rhodes was accused by the Justice Department of orchestrating a weekslong plot that culminated in his followers attacking the U.S. Capitol in a desperate bid to keep Trump in power.
Rhodes himself did not enter the building on Jan. 6 and has said it was “stupid” that members of the Oath Keepers did.
“My guys blundered through doors,” he insisted during his visit to Capitol Hill earlier this week.
Trump’s clemency order on Monday upended the largest and most egregious lawfare abuse in Justice Department history, freeing from prison some 1,500 political prisoners. Many entered the Capitol peacefully.
Others were actively provoked and entrapped by crisis actors within the Capitol Police and D.C. Metro Police—some of whom outgoing president Joe Biden pardoned for their criminal conduct—including presumed perjury—just hours before leaving office.
A recent inspector general’s report also revealed that the FBI had dozens of paid informants in the crowd, including some who entered the Capitol but were not charged.
Trump has defended the pardons , saying the defendants had “already served years in prison” in conditions he described as “disgusting” and “inhumane.”
Adapted from reporting by the Associated Press
