Oath Keepers' Stewart Rhodes, Proud Boys' Enrique Tarrio released after Trump Jan. 6 clemency

WASHINGTON - Stewart Rhodes, founder of the Oath Keepers, and Enrique Tarrio, former leader of the Proud Boys, have been released from prison after their lengthy sentences for seditious conspiracy in the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol were wiped away by a sweeping order from President Donald Trump benefiting more than 1,500 defendants. 

Tarrio and Rhodes, two of the highest-profile Jan. 6 defendants, received some of the harshest punishments in what became the largest investigation in Justice Department history. 

READ MORE: Oath Keepers leader Stewart Rhodes sentenced to 18 years for seditious conspiracy in Jan. 6 attack

Oath Keepers' Stewart Rhodes released: 'I had no doubt it was going to happen'

Rhodes, of Granbury, Texas, was serving an 18-year prison sentence, and Tarrio, of Miami, was serving a 22-year sentence after being convicted of orchestrating plots to stop the peaceful transfer of power following President Donald Trump's loss in the 2020 election to Democrat Joe Biden.

FOX 5’s Melanie Alnwick spoke with Rhodes outside the  D.C. Central Detention Facility on Tuesday morning. He told her he had served about 18 months at a federal correctional institution in Cumberland, Maryland.

"We knew that was coming because he promised it," he said about being released. "Promises made, promises kept. We knew it was going to happen. I had no doubt it was going to happen."

READ MORE: Sweeping pardons issued for Jan. 6 defendants; some released from DC jail

D.C. Central Detention Facility was a ‘crappy place,’ according to Rhodes

"I was here in solitary confinement for about 6 weeks, so it's pretty crappy place," Rhodes told Alnwick. "I think it's a good day for America that this is being, all the wrongs of being undone. None of these people should have been here in the first place. None of them were ever tried in a fair trial."

"Until you get that fair trial, you're presumed innocent until proven guilty. I think Trump did the right thing," he continued.

Their attorneys confirmed to The Associated Press on Tuesday that they had been released hours after President Donald Trump pardoned, commuted the sentences of, or ordered the dismissal of cases against all 1,500-plus individuals charged with federal crimes in the Jan. 6 riot. 

READ MORE: Oath Keepers boss guilty of seditious conspiracy in January 6 case

‘I think Trump did the right thing’: Rhodes

Trump also ordered the attorney general to seek the dismissal of roughly 450 cases that were still pending before judges.

Trump said the pardons will end "a grave national injustice that has been perpetrated upon the American people over the last four years" and begin "a process of national reconciliation."

In the weeks leading up to his return to the White House, Trump suggested that he would review the Jan. 6 defendants on a case-by-case basis rather than issuing blanket pardons. Vice President JD Vance stated recently that those responsible for the violence during the Capitol riot "obviously" should not be pardoned.

Over the past four years, more than 1,200 individuals across the U.S. have been convicted of crimes related to the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol. This includes approximately 200 people who pleaded guilty to assaulting law enforcement officers. Additionally, over a dozen defendants were convicted of seditious conspiracy, a rare Civil War-era charge and the most serious one brought in connection with the Jan. 6 attack.

Tarrio, who led the neofascist Proud Boys group as it gained influence in mainstream Republican circles, was convicted in 2023 of seditious conspiracy and other crimes after a months-long trial. He was accused of orchestrating violence to overturn Biden's 2020 victory over Donald Trump.

Tarrio wasn't in Washington on Jan. 6, having been arrested two days earlier in a separate case and ordered out of the capital city. However, prosecutors said he organized and directed the attack by Proud Boys who stormed the Capitol that day.

Rhodes was convicted in a separate trial alongside members of his far-right militia group, who prosecutors alleged were intent on keeping President Donald Trump in power at all costs. Over seven weeks of testimony, jurors heard how Rhodes rallied his followers to fight to defend Trump, discussed the prospect of a "bloody" civil war, and warned that the Oath Keepers might have to "rise up in insurrection" to defeat Joe Biden if Trump didn't act.

READ MORE: Proud Boys leader who burned DC church’s Black Lives Matter banner gets jail time