Far-Right Oath Keepers, Former Proud Boys Leaders Freed After Trump’s Pardon | Far right news

Stewart Rhodes and Enrique Tarrio, who received some of the longest sentences for rioting at the US Capitol on January 6, 2021, have been released from prison.

Two major figures of the extreme right in the United States have been released from prison, just hours after President Donald Trump issued pardons for more than 1,500 people accused of participating in the riots at the US Capitol on January 6, 2021.

A lawyer for Enrique Tarrio, the former leader of the far-right Proud Boys group, said he was released on Tuesday. He was convicted to 22 years in prison.

Stewart Rhodes, the former Oath Keepers militia leader, was also released shortly after midnight Tuesday in Cumberland, Maryland. Trump commuted the sentence to 18 years in prison.

Rhodes and Tarrio were two of the most prominent defendants in the Jan. 6 case and received some of the harshest sentences in the Justice Department’s years-long effort to investigate the riot at the U.S. Capitol.

Trump had promised pardon those charged in connection with the events of that day, when a mob of his supporters stormed the US legislature to prevent Congress from confirming his loss in the 2020 election.

Trump made repeated false claims that the election was stolen from him in the weeks leading up to the riots. He also urged his supporters to “fight like hell” and “stop stealing” during meeting shortly before the start of the attack.

Rhodes was convicted in 2023 after being found guilty of seditious conspiracy, a rare charge alleging that a defendant planned to undermine or attack the authority of the US government.

Prosecutors accused Rhodes instructing members of the Oath Keepers to attack the US Capitol. Rhodes denied any wrongdoing and said he was the victim of politically motivated persecution.

“For decades, Mr. Rhodes, it is clear that you have wanted this country’s democracy to turn to violence,” U.S. District Judge Amit Mehta said in sentencing.

“The moment you are released, whenever that may be, you will be ready to take up arms against your government.”

For his part, Tarrio was convicted of several charges, including seditious conspiracy. While Tarrio was not in Washington, DC, during the attack on the US Capitol, prosecutors said he organized and directed Proud boys who were there on the attack that day.

In a statement confirming Tarrio’s release from prison, his family said he was expected to arrive in Miami, Florida, on Tuesday afternoon.

“Thank you for being with us, the golden age has arrived!” the statement read, echoing Trump’s call for a “golden age” under his presidency.

Hours after taking office on Monday, Trump pardoned all those charged in connection with the riots. He pardoned more than 1,500 people and commuted the sentences of 14 others.

This move “ends the grave national injustice that has been perpetrated against the American people for the past four years and begins the process of national reconciliation,” Trump said in a proclamation published on the White House website.

Craig Sicknick, whose brother, Capitol Police Officer Brian Sicknick, was attacked during the riots and died of multiple strokes the next day, called Trump “pure evil” on Tuesday.

“The man who killed my brother is now the president,” he told the Reuters news agency.

“My brother died in vain. Everything he’s done to try to protect the country, to protect the Capitol — why bother?” Sicknick said. “What Trump has done is despicable and proves that the United States no longer has anything resembling a justice system.”

Michael Fanone, a former Metropolitan Police officer who suffered serious injuries during the riots, also expressed his anger that the six men who attacked him that day would walk free.

“My country betrayed me,” he told CNN on Monday.