STORY: :: Former Oath Keepers militia leader Stewart Rhodes leaves prison after Trump pardons January 6 rioters
:: January 21, 2025
:: Cumberland, Maryland
:: Rhodes, one of the organizers of the attack on the U.S. Capitol, has had his 18-year sentence commuted
Thousands of Trump supporters stormed the Capitol on Jan 6, 2021, in an unsuccessful attempt to prevent Congress from certifying the Republican’s 2020 loss to Joe Biden.
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Rhodes emerged from the federal prison in Cumberland, Maryland just after midnight on Tuesday (January 21)
Rhodes did not enter the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, but he was found guilty of plotting to use force against Congress to prevent the election certification. He was also accused of helping to stockpile firearms at a hotel in nearby Virginia that could be ferried across the river to Washington.
The attack was spurred by Trump’s refusal to acknowledge his defeat, which threatened the peaceful transfer of power for the first time in U.S. history. Roughly 140 police officers were assaulted during the attack and four people died during the chaos.
Among those due to be released are leaders of the far-right Proud Boys organization, including some who were convicted of seditious conspiracy. About 40 men wearing Proud Boys insignia traded insults with protesters on the streets of Washington during Trump’s inauguration on Monday.
Trump’s pardon was only one of a sheaf of executive orders he signed after an inauguration ceremony in the U.S. Rotunda, where his supporters had rampaged four years earlier.
