Judge Lifts Restrictions on Jan. 6 Convicts Who Had Sentences Commuted

Oath Keepers founder Stewart Rhodes and others are now free to enter Washington.

Stewart Rhodes speaks with media in Washington, after being released from federal prison in Cumberland, Md., on Jan. 21, 2025. Kayla Bartkowski/Getty Images

A federal judge on Jan. 27 reversed restrictions he had imposed on Oath Keepers founder Stewart Rhodes and a number of others who were convicted of crimes associated with the Jan. 6, 2021, breach of the U.S. Capitol.

U.S. District Judge Amit Mehta said he agreed with U.S. officials, who had asked the court to remove the restrictions.

“Defendants are no longer bound by the judicially imposed conditions of supervised release,” Mehta said in an 8-page order.

President Donald Trump on Jan. 20 pardoned some 1,500 Jan. 6 defendants and commuted the sentences of 14 people, including Rhodes, who was convicted of seditious conspiracy and sentenced in 2023 to 18 years in prison for plotting to disrupt a session of Congress convened to certify the 2020 electoral vote.

Officials have released many of those granted relief. Rhodes, after being released from federal prison in Maryland on Jan. 21, visited Capitol Hill to advocate for the release of all.

Just days later, on Jan. 24, Mehta issued an order barring Rhodes and eight co-defendants from entering Washington, absent judicial permission. The brief document did not provide a rationale for the order.

Edward R. Martin Jr., the interim U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia, subsequently filed a motion telling the judge that Rhodes and the others “are no longer subject to the terms of supervised release and probation,” since their sentences were commuted. That means the court could not modify the terms of their supervised release, since their supervised release is no longer active, according to Martin.

“The United States hereby indicates that the Order must be vacated,” he said.

Mehta said on Monday that he read the motion and considered the arguments. The judge acknowledged that he did not impose the travel restrictions when originally sentencing the nine convicts. He also said that the judiciary must defer to the president on clemency, based on Supreme Court precedent.

“The court finds that the Department of Justice’s reading of the Proclamation as both reducing Defendants’ custodial sentences and doing away with their terms of supervised release is reasonable,” Mehta said.

The order also noted that presidents have been explicit when they are commuting a sentence, but not a term of supervised release. If a president is not explicit, it is assumed that the term of supervised release is also covered.

“It is not for this court to divine why President Trump commuted Defendants’ sentences, or to assess whether it was sensible to do so,” Mehta said. “The court’s sole task is to determine the act’s effect.”

“We are very pleased with the ruling,” Rhodes’ lawyer, Ed Tarpley, told The Epoch Times. “We think it’s a clear victory for the Jan. 6 defendants.”

Tarpley said, regarding what Rhodes will do now, “I think Stewart’s just trying to take a deep breath, if you will, and enjoy living a normal life outside of the walls of a federal prison.”