Judge bans Stewart Rhodes and convicted Oath Keepers from Washington after Trump’s clemency
Judge bans Stewart Rhodes and convicted Oath Keepers from Washington after Trump’s clemency
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The judge who presided over a months-long seditious conspiracy trial ordered the defendants to keep out of D.C. A single-page order from District Judge Amit Mehta on Friday forbids Oath Keepers founder Stewart Rhodes and seven other members of the group from entering the nation’s capital without a court’s permission.
In 2023, Rhodes was sentenced to 18 years in prison after a jury agreed that he conspired with members of his group to break into halls of Congress in what prosecutors described as an act of terrorism. Trump commuted his sentence — along with the sentences of 13 other Capitol rioters, including Oath Keepers members who were similarly convicted on charges of seditious conspiracy — to time served. Rhodes was released from prison earlier this week.
Before he was tapped to fill the role as the top prosecutor in Washington, succeeding Matthew Graves, who led the largest federal investigation in Department of Justice history with the prosecution of more than 1,600 people in connection with January 6, Martin had served as a board member with a legal group trying to free those same defendants.
Martin — a prominent “Stop the Steal” activist” — is now tasked with overseeing the office that handled those prosecutions. He is working to dismiss the remaining cases. “The individuals referenced in our motion have had their sentences commuted — period, end of sentence,” Martin said in a statement Friday.
