Far-right leaders benefiting from Trump’s January 6 pardon speak out

Freshly released thanks to President Trump’s broad clemency measures, two of the country’s most notorious far-right leaders – Enrique Tarrio of the Proud Boys and Stewart Rhodes of the Oath Keepers militia – spoke out this week.

While the men avoided any statements about the future of their battered organizations, they unrepentantly asserted that they wanted Mr. Trump to take revenge on their behalf for being prosecuted in connection with the attack on the Capitol on January 6, 2021.

Before Mr. Trump offered them a reprieve Monday night, both men were serving lengthy prison sentences — Mr. Tarrio 22 years and Mr. Rhodes 18 years — for seditious conspiracy stemming from their roles in the storming of the Capitol. The charges against them and the sanctions they imposed are among the most serious imposed on the approximately 1,600 people prosecuted in connection with the January 6 attacks.

Perhaps this is why their remarks, delivered before a largely friendly audience, were couched in a tone of cautious belligerence.

They were wary of the profile the organizations they once led would have in a second Trump administration. But they clearly echo claims by the president and some of his allies that those who sought to hold Mr. Trump and the January 6 rioters accountable should face some sort of punishment themselves.

“Success,” Mr. Tarrio said, “will be revenge.”

Mr. Tarrio made the comments to Alex Jones, a pro-Trump conspiracy theorist and owner of the media outlet Infowars. He called into Mr. Jones’ show just hours after emerging from a federal prison in Louisiana and immediately thanked Mr. Trump “for helping us through these difficult times and for setting me free.”