Judge bars Rhodes, other Oath Keepers from entering DC without court permission

A federal judge on Friday barred Oath Keepers founder Stewart Rhodes and seven other members of the right-wing extremist group from entering Washington, D.C., without the court's permission, days after President Trump commuted their sentences as part of sweeping clemency for those charged in the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol attack.

U.S. District Judge Amit Mehta, who oversaw the Oath Keepers conspiracy trials, also blocked the Oath Keepers from entering the U.S. Capitol or surrounding grounds without permission.

The order amending the conditions of their release came after Rhodes was spotted in the Capitol complex Wednesday, set to met with GOP lawmakers to advocate for the release of another Oath Keeper shortly after his own release from prison.

Rhodes was seen in the Dunkin' inside Longworth House Office Building but said he did not go into the actual Capitol building.

The other Oath Keepers whom Mehta barred from Washington and the Capitol include Kelly Meggs, Kenneth Harrelson and Jessica Watkins, who were tried for seditious conspiracy alongside Rhodes, and Roberto Minuta, Edward Vallejo, David Moerschel and Joseph Hackett, who faced a separate sedition trial.

Harrelson and Watkins were acquitted of sedition but convicted of other felonies. Juries found Rhodes and the others guilty of the rare-Civil War era charge, finding they plotted to stop the certification of the 2020 presidential election by force.

Trump commuted all of their sentences Monday to time served, and every other person charged in connection with the Capitol riot received a "full, complete and unconditional" pardon.

Before their release, Mehta said at a sentencing that the prospect of Rhodes, the group’s founder, being pardoned “ought to be frightening to anyone who cares about democracy in this country.”

Prosecutors described Rhodes at trial as the "orchestrator of this conspiracy and the architect of the plan,” using his leadership role in the right-wing militia group to coordinate Oath Keepers across the country to converge on the Capitol that day. On Jan. 6, he was a “general overlooking the battlefield” as his troops stormed the building, they said.

Rhodes was sentenced to 18 years in prison, which were wiped away with the stroke of Trump's pen. The extremist group leader said Wednesday he did not regret the actions that led to his conviction.

“I didn’t go into the Capitol. I didn’t tell anybody else to go inside. We’re here to do security for two permitted events on Capitol grounds,” Rhodes said. “I regret that my guys went in. They blundered in along with everybody else. It doesn’t make them criminals. It just makes me kind of stupid.”

His attorney, James Lee Bright, previously told The Hill that they believe Rhodes could eventually receive a full pardon or see success on appeal of his sedition conviction

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