Federal judge, prosecutors battle over Oath Keepers’ access to U.S. Capitol after Trump’s clemency

The federal judge who presided over the seditious conspiracy trial of far-right Oath Keepers founder Stewart Rhodes is locked in a battle with Washington, D.C.’s new interim top federal prosecutor over whether Rhodes and his co-defendants should be allowed into Washington, D.C., and the U.S. Capitol following President Trump’s commutation of their sentences. 

District Court Judge Amit Mehta on Friday ordered Oath Keepers members Rhodes, Kelly Meggs, Kenneth Harrelson, Jessica Watkins, Roberto Minuta, Edward Vallejo, David Moerchel and Joseph Hacket — all of whom were convicted and are serving multi-year prison sentences — to be barred from entering Washington, D.C., and the U.S. Capitol building “without first obtaining the permission from the Court.” 

On Monday, as part of his mass clemency of those tied to the Jan. 6 Capitol attack, Mr. Trump pardoned over 1,500 defendants and commuted the sentences of Rhodes, his co-defendants and certain members of the Proud Boys group who were also charged with seditious conspiracy. Not all of those who received commutations were ultimately convicted of the seditious conspiracy charge. 

The decision to commute their sentences as opposed to pardon the defendants and wipe their cases clean left Rhodes’ case open to possible oversight by Mehta and the federal court system. 

Washington, D.C. acting U.S. attorney, Trump ally Edward Martin, pushed back against the judge’s order writing the defendants “are no longer subject to the terms of supervised release and probation.” 

“The Court may not modify the terms of supervised release,” prosecutors wrote in a court filing. 

The office Martin now heads led all of the Capitol breach prosecutions and brought charges against more than 1,500 defendants. 

After receiving commutation, Rhodes and other Jan. 6 defendants appeared on Capitol Hill on Wednesday. 

In a statement, Martin said, “If a judge decided that Jim Biden, General Mark Milley, or another individual were forbidden to visit America’s capital—even after receiving a last-minute, preemptive pardon from the former President—I believe most Americans would object. The individuals referenced in our motion have had their sentences commuted – period, end of sentence.”