Newly released from prison, the founder of the antigovernment group the Oath Keepers stood outside the D.C. jail early Tuesday. He and a few dozen others were awaiting the release of Jan. 6 defendants after President Donald Trump issued sweeping pardons, including of people convicted of brutal assaults on officers at the U.S. Capitol.
Stewart Rhodes told News4 he was released from Federal Correctional Institution, Cumberland in Maryland late Monday, after Trump pardoned about 1,500 criminal defendants. The president did not distinguish between violent and non-violent defendants, as some expected he would.
Rhodes had been sentenced to 18 years in prison for orchestrating the violent plot to keep Trump in the White House after he lost the 2020 presidential election. On Tuesday morning, he said he was anticipating the release of about 20 J6 inmates from the jail in Southeast.
“We’re here to welcome them,” he said, wearing a black Trump 2020 hat.
“I think it’s a good day for America that all the wrongs are being undone. None of them should have been here in the first place,” Rhodes said.
Robert Morss, who had been sentenced to more than five years in prison for charges including assaulting officers with a dangerous weapon, also was outside the jail early Tuesday.
J6 supporters waited overnight in freezing temperatures for inmates to be released. Many Metropolitan Police Department (MPD) officers patrolled the entrance. Supporters marched to the doors late Monday and were told by police to move back.
J6 supporters described a well-organized, well-financed national movement to get released inmates home. They said they had supporters at about 80 prisons across the U.S. ready with warm clothes, rides and even private planes to help defendants upon their release.
Trump pardoned, commuted prison sentences or vowed to dismiss the cases of all of the 1,500-plus people charged with crimes in the Jan. 6, 2021, U.S. Capitol riot, including people convicted of assaulting police officers. He used his clemency powers on his first day back in office to undo the massive prosecution of the unprecedented assault on the seat of American democracy.
On Jan. 6, 2021, Trump supporters stormed the Capitol as lawmakers worked to affirm President Joe Biden’s win in the 2020 election. More than 140 officers were assaulted, including more than 80 U.S. Capitol police officers and more than 60 MPD officers, according to the outgoing U.S. attorney’s office for D.C.
Attackers who beat police were armed with a long list of weapons, including: guns, stun guns, flagpoles, fire extinguishers, bike racks, batons, a metal whip, office furniture, pepper spray, bear spray, a tomahawk ax, a hatchet, a hockey stick, knuckle gloves, a baseball bat, a massive Trump billboard, Trump flags, a pitchfork, pieces of lumber, crutches and an explosive device.
News4’s Jessica Albert reports live from the D.C. jail, where 23 of 1,500 Jan. 6 defendants are being held and will soon be released.
Just weeks ago, the federal judge who presided over Rhodes’ seditious conspiracy case called the possibility of his release “frightening.”
“The notion that Stewart Rhodes could be absolved of his actions is frightening and ought to be frightening to anyone who cares about democracy in this country,” U.S. District Judge Amit Mehta said.
In an interview just days earlier, as J6 pardons were expected, departing U.S. Attorney for D.C. Matt Graves told the News4 I-Team pardons are a political act. The mob’s violent attacks on officers were extensively documented on video. Nothing can erase the record of what happened on Jan. 6, 2021, and the fact of what individuals chose to do that day remains, Graves said.
Ted Oberg and Rick Yarborough contributed reporting. NBC News and the Associated Press contributed prior reporting.
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