The Epoch Times

WASHINGTON—Stewart Rhodes, founder of the Oath Keepers, addressed the media outside the D.C. Jail, where defendants are being held over their alleged participation in the Jan. 6, 2021, storming of the Capitol. He thanked President Donald Trump for commuting his 18-year sentence. Rhodes was released from a federal prison in Maryland earlier on Tuesday, after Trump announced 14 commutations on Monday, along with clemency to about 1,500 others who were convicted or pleaded guilty to crimes related to the riot. Rhodes said conditions at the Maryland prison, FCI Cumberland, were “very good” compared to the D.C. Jail and the jail in Alexandria, Virginia, where he was held pending and during trial. Rhodes said he did not experience abuse from guards. Other prisoners also supported Trump, he said. “They saw him react like a warrior. You know, he's got spirit, got fight. So that's what they saw,” he said, referring to Trump's response to the assassintion attempt on his life in Butler, Pennsylvania in July 2024. In response to a question about rioters who assaulted police officers at the Capitol on Jan. 6, Rhodes said that while he doesn’t support assaulting law enforcement personnel, he sympathized with a women he claimed was pushed down steps by an officer and another woman he said was repeatedly hit by a police officer with a club. “That's unlawful force, unless the person's a deadly force threat,” he said. “They’re trained to hit below the shoulders.”