Two of the highest-profile figures in the January 6, 2021, insurrection at the U.S. Capitol have been released — former Proud Boys leader Enrique Tarrio and Oath Keepers founder Stewart Rhodes.
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On Monday, Donald Trump, shortly after being sworn in for his second term as president, issued an order that granted pardons, commutation of sentences, or dismissal of charges to more than 1,500 people who rioted at the Capitol to stop the certification of Joe Biden’s election as president.
Tarrio and Rhodes had received two of the longest sentences of all the insurrectionists, whom Trump described as heroes and political prisoners. Tarrio was serving 22 years for his role in the riots and Rhodes 18 years. Their attorneys told the Associated Press they had been released.
“Trump made rewriting the history of the Jan. 6 attack a centerpiece of his bid to return to the White House, and the pardon of the rioters fulfills a campaign pledge to free defendants he contends were politically persecuted by the Justice Department,” the AP notes.
The Proud Boys are racist and anti-LGBTQ+. They are known for attacking drag queen story hours, among at least 69 anti-LGBTQ+ incidents committed between 2022 and 2024. They also have targeted Haitian immigrants in Ohio, who were falsely accused by Trump of eating dogs and cats, and they have harassed other marginalized groups. They are misogynist and anti-Muslim.
Tarrio was not at the January 6 riot, having been arrested two days earlier in a different matter. But he was convicted of seditious conspiracy and other charges related to the plotting of the attack. Rhodes was also convicted of seditious conspiracy.
The Oath Keepers are anti-government extremists. They claim to be defending the U.S. Constitution, but they have opposed any government action that goes against their interpretation of it. “They are often confrontational and have participated in multiple armed standoffs against the government,” the Southern Poverty Law Center explains.
Many of the Oath Keepers’ members are current and former members of police forces and the military, and they have provided “security” for some far-right events, including the Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville, Va., in 2017. They offered to protect anti-marriage equality Kentucky county clerk Kim Davis from arrest in 2015, but she went to jail briefly for contempt of court.
Jessica Watkins, a transgender woman and former Oath Keepers member who participated in the insurrection, saw her sentence commuted by Trump.
The pardons, commutations, and dismissals have been criticized by progressive politicians and activists, police officers attacked in the riot, the family of police officer Brian Sicknick, who died after the riot, and even two Republican U.S. senators, Susan Collins of Maine and Thom Tillis of North Carolina.
Collins told Newsweek that while “some Americans were caught up in the crowd on January 6 and may well deserve the clemency President Trump has given … I do not support pardons given to people who engaged in violence on January 6, including assaulting police officers, or breaking windows to get into the Capitol, for example.”
Tillis told media outlets, “Clearly, with the sheer number, there were people that got swept up in it, and I’m OK if they did something dumb in the heat of the moment. That’s one thing. But look, you make this place less safe if you send the signal that police officers could potentially be assaulted and there is no consequence. It’s pretty straightforward to me.”
