A federal judge has officially rescinded a previous order that had restricted eight members of the Oath Keepers, including founder Stewart Rhodes, from entering Washington, D.C. without prior court approval. This decision comes in the wake of a series of high-profile sentence commutations that were granted to several individuals involved in the events at the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021.
U.S. District Judge Amit Mehta, who had overseen the conspiracy trials related to the Capitol breach, reversed his earlier decision just days after it had been implemented. The change followed the announcement that the former president had commuted the sentences of several Oath Keepers and other related individuals, effectively ending their prison terms.
In his written opinion, Judge Mehta stated that it was not within the court’s authority to question the motives behind the presidential commutations or to amend original sentences after the fact. “It is not for this court to divine why the President chose to commute the sentences,” Mehta wrote. “The court’s sole task is to interpret the legal consequences of that act.”
