Judge bars Oath Keepers founder Rhodes from entry to Washington without court permission

WASHINGTON (AP) — A federal judge on Friday banned the founder of the Oath Keepers Stewart Rhodes From the entrance to Washington, DC, without court approval after President Donald Trump commuted the 18-year prison sentence of the leader of the far-right extremist group for orchestrating an attack on the US Capitol there is four years old.

U.S. District Judge Amit Mehta the order Two days after Rhodes visited the Capitol, where he met with at least one lawmaker, spoke with others and defended his actions during a mob attack on January 6, 2021. Rhodes was released from a Maryland prison a day earlier.

Mehta’s order applies to seven other people who were convicted of charges in the riot that interrupted the certification of Joe Biden’s 2020 presidential election victory over Trump. The order also prohibits them from entering the Capitol building or surrounding grounds without court permission.

Rhodes was convicted of seditious conspiracy In one of the most serious cases brought by the Department of Justice. He was found guilty of orchestrating a week-long plot that resulted in his followers attacking the American capital In a desperate attempt to keep Trump, a Republican, in power.

Rhodes did not enter the building on Jan. 6 and said it was “stupid” that members of the Oath Keepers did so.

“My guys made a mistake in the doors,” he insisted during his visit to Capitol Hill earlier this week.

Trump’s clemency order on Monday upended the largest prosecutions in Justice Department history, freeing prisons seen on camera viciously attacking the police as well as leaders of far-right extremist groups convicted orchestrate violent plots to stop the peaceful transfer of power after his electoral loss.

Trump defended the pardons, saying the defendants had already “served years in prison” under conditions he described as “disgusting” and “inhumane.”