Proud Boys leader Enrique Tarrio and Oath Keepers founder Stewart Rhodes released from prison after Trump pardons
Enrique Tarrio, the now-former leader of the neo-fascist Proud Boys gang who was convicted on treason-related charges after fuelling a mob that attacked the Capitol, was released from federal prison following Donald Trump’s sweeping pardons for nearly every January 6 defendant.
Tarrio, who was sentenced to 22 years in prison, was among four members of the group convicted of seditious conspiracy and other crimes following a four-month trial.
Stewart Rhodes — founder of the far-right Oath Keepers anti-government militia who was similarly convicted of seditious conspiracy and sentenced to 18 years in prison — was also released from prison after Trump commuted his sentence alongside 13 other associates of the two groups.
More than 1,500 people were criminally charged in connection with a mob’s assault on the Capitol, fuelled by Trump’s bogus narrative that the 2020 presidential election was rigged and stolen from him.
Trump issued “full pardons” for virtually all of them on January 20, and commuted the sentences of 14 convicted members of the Proud Boys and Oath Keepers to time served. Pending cases are being dismissed.
“These are the hostages,” he said as he signed a series of orders from the Oval Office.
“We hope they come out tonight, frankly,” he said. “These people have been destroyed. What they’ve done to these people is outrageous. There’s rarely been anything like in the history of our country.”
More than 600 people were charged with assaulting, resisting, or impeding law enforcement agents or officers or obstructing those officers during a civil disorder, including nearly 200 defendants charged with using a deadly or dangerous weapon or causing serious bodily injury to an officer, according to the Department of Justice.
More than 1,000 defendants pleaded guilty. More than 200 people were found guilty at trial — including 10 like Tarrio and Rhodes who were found guilty of seditious conspiracy.
Tarrio — who was not in Washington D.C., on January 6 — was found guilty of organizing and directing a mob towards the Capitol, where Proud Boys members dismantled barricades and broke windows to breach the halls of Congress, then bragged about their actions on social media and in group chat messages that were later shared with jurors.
Trump acommuted the sentences of other Proud Boys members who were on trial with Tarrio — including Ethan Nordean, who was sentenced to 18 years in prison; Joe Biggs, who was was sentenced to 17 years; Zachary Rehl, who was sentenced to 15 years; and Dominic Pezzola, the sole co-defendant among them who was not convicted of seditious conspiracy, who was sentenced to 10 years.
Oath Keepers members who were similarly convicted of seditious conspiracy and other charges — including Rhodes— also had their sentences commuted to time served by the president.
Last month, the judge who presided over Rhodes’s trial said a pardon should be “frightening to anyone who cares about democracy in this country.”
Tarrio served as a “naturally charismatic leader, a savvy propagandist, and the celebrity Chairman” of the Proud Boys, wielding his influence over his subordinates and allies to “organize and execute the conspiracy to forcibly stop the peaceful democratic transfer of power” as lawmakers convened to certify election results, according to federal prosecutors.
