The former leader of the far-right group Proud Boys, Enrique Tarrio, and the founder of another ultra group, Oath Keepers, Stewart Rhodes, have been released from prison after their long sentences for the assault on the Capitol were commuted by order of the US president, Donald Trump, according to the Associated Press agency.
This Monday, Donald Trump pardoned those accused of the assault on the Capitol on January 6, 2021, in one of the first executive orders he signed a few hours after being sworn in as president. Rhodes and Tarrio were two of the highest-profile defendants.
Trump signed the presidential pardon and commutation of sentences in the Oval Office of the White House, where he stressed that there are nearly 1,500 people benefiting from this measure, whom he called “hostages.”
Among those pardoned, the order highlights the commutation of sentences by name of 14 members of the extremist organizations of the Oath Keepers and the Proud Boys, who led the violent assault on the Capitol in 2021. Among those pardoned, as confirmed by their family, was including Proud Boys leader Enrique Tarrio, sentenced by a District of Columbia judge for “sedition” to 22 years in prison.
On January 6, 2021, a mob of Trump fans broke into the United States Congress to try, unsuccessfully, to prevent the ratification of Democrat Joe Biden’s electoral victory in the November 2020 presidential elections.
Trump was charged before a federal court in the District of Columbia accused of having incited the insurrection by falsely denouncing electoral fraud knowing that he had lost those elections.
But the special prosecutor in the case, Jack Smith, recently closed the prosecution, after Trump’s electoral victory last November, since the Justice Department is prohibited from prosecuting sitting presidents.
Trump’s various court cases played a central role in his campaign, as he presented himself as a victim of judicial persecution by the Biden Administration.
Trump promised during the campaign that on his first day as president he would pardon those accused of the assault on the Capitol, whom he describes as “heroes” and who this Monday he considered “hostages.”
More than 730 people have been convicted for their participation in that attempted insurrection, according to data from the Department of Justice, and about 300 are still awaiting trial, some for violent crimes, such as assaults on police officers.
Four people died in the assault on the Capitol and more than 140 officers were injured.
With information from EFE.
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