What
is
it
that
they
say
about
criminals
returning
to
the
scene
of
the
crime?
That
would
be
Stewart
Rhodes,
the
white
supremacist
Oath
Keepers
militia
leader
who
led
an
attack
on
the
Capitol
four
years
ago
scarfing
doughnuts
inside
the
Longworth
House
Office
Building.
He’s
the
one
with
the
eye
patch,
since
he
dropped
a
loaded
handgun
while
teaching
a
gun
safety
course
and
shot
out
his
eye
in
1993.
The
other
dude
is
Ivan
Raiklin,
the
self-styled
“Secretary
of
Retribution”
for
Trump,
who
flogged
nonsensical
theories
about
Mike
Pence’s
ability
to
discard
electoral
votes
at
will.
Within
hours
of
taking
the
oath
of
office
Monday,
President
Trump
had
already
pardoned
almost
1,600
participants
in
the
Capitol
Riot,
many
of
whom
assaulted
police
officers.
Among
those
were
members
of
the
white
supremacist
Proud
Boys
gang,
several
of
whom
were
convicted
of
seditious
conspiracy.
But
Rhodes
and
his
fellow
Oath
Keepers
only
received
a
commutation.
Perhaps
this
is
because
the
Oath
Keepers
stashed
a
huge
cache
of
weapons
at
a
Comfort
Inn
in
Arlington
and
hoped
that
Trump
would
invoke
the
Insurrection
Act
as
they
marched
in
military
formation
on
the
Capitol.
Perhaps
it
was
because
they
were
uniquely
careless
about
their
communications.
At
his
trial
in
2022,
prosecutors
played
a
recording
of
Rhodes
saying,
“My
only
regret
is
they
should
have
brought
rifles.
We
should
have
brought
rifles.
We
could
have
fixed
it
right
then
and
there.
I’d
hang
fucking
Pelosi
from
the
lamppost.”
Rhodes
got
18
years,
but
walked
out
of
jail
on
Tuesday
and
made
a
beeline
for
Congress. According
to
The
Hill’s
Emily
Brooks,
Rhodes
and
Raiklin
were
there
to
lobby
Republican
Rep.
Gus
Bilirakis
for
a
pardon
for
Jeremy
Brown,
an
Oath
Keeper
from
Florida
currently
serving
an
87-month
sentence
for
possession
of
unregistered
guns
and
explosive
and
retention
of
a
government
document.
(He
seems
nice.)
Rhodes’s
presence
at
the
scene
of
the
crime
did
not
go
unnoticed.
One
unnamed
staffer
called
it
“disrespectful”
and
urged
him
to
“please
tell
your
story
elsewhere.”
And
it
did
not
amuse
Judge
Amit
Mehta,
who
sentence
Rhodes
and
his
co-conspirators
and
previously
described
the
prospect
of
a
pardon
for
them
“frightening
to
anyone
who
cares
about
democracy
in
this
country.”
This
morning,
Judge
Mehta
issued
an
order
sua
sponte
amending
the
conditions
of
release
for
Rhodes
and
his
fellow
Oath
Keepers
Kelly
Meggs,
Kenneth
Harrelson,
Jessica
Watkins,
Roberto
Minuta,
Edward
Vallejo,
David
Moerchel,
and
Joseph
Hacket.
Because
their
sentences
were
commuted,
rather
than
pardoned,
they
remain
under
supervision
of
the
court.
And
so
Judge
Mehta
is
able
to
bar
them
from
entering
the
Capitol
complex
or
surrounding
area
without
permission
of
the
court.
Presumably
Trump
will
remedy
this
oversight
shortly.
In
the
meantime,
former
Capitol
Cop
Michael
Fanone
put
it
more
succinctly.
And,
lo!
Even
as
we
were
typing,
the
Justice
Department
was
hopping
to
the
defense
of
these
saintly
patriots.
In
a
motion
to
dismiss
the
terms
of
supervised
release,
the
government
demands
that
Judge
Mehta
rescind
his
order.
As
the
terms
of
supervised
release
and
probation
are
included
in
the
“sentences”
of
the
defendants,
the
Court
may
not
modify
the
terms
of
supervised
release;
the
term
is
no
longer
active
by
effect
of
the
Executive
Order.
See
United
States
v.
Haymond,
588
U.S.
634,
648
(2019)
(Supreme
Court
has
acknowledged
“that
an
accused’s
final
sentence
includes
any
supervised
release
sentence
he
may
receive”
and
therefore
“supervised
release
punishments
arise
from
and
are
treat[ed]
as
part
of
the
penalty
for
the
initial
offense”)
(cleaned
up)).
The
motion
was
signed
by
Ed
Martin,
the
interim
US
Attorney
for
DC.
Martin
is
a
conservative
activist
and
a
a
prominent
member
of
the
“Stop
the
Steal”
movement
who
gave
a
speech
at
the
Ellipse
on
January
6
and
tweeted
“Like
Mardi
Gras
in
DC
today:
love,
faith
and
joy.
Ignore
#FakeNews”
at
2:57
p.m.,
after
rioters
had
breached
both
the
House
and
Senate
Chambers.
Liz
Dye lives
in
Baltimore
where
she
produces
the
Law
and
Chaos substack and podcast.