Oath Keepers founder Stewart Rhodes seeking presidential pardon

Oath Keepers founder Elmer Stewart Rhodes III plans to push for a pardon from President Donald J. Trump after Rhodes’ Jan. 6 trial judge issued a ruling that Rhodes said could leave him at risk of unjust rearrest.

In an eight-page order on Jan. 27, U.S. District Judge Amit Mehta rescinded his Jan. 24 order to ban nine Oath Keepers with presidential commutations from the District of Columbia and the U.S. Capitol. Mehta issued the order two days after the newly freed Rhodes appeared at the D.C. jail and on Capitol Hill to advocate the release of Oath Keeper Jeremy Brown.

The nine Oath Keepers-related defendants who received presidential commutations are Rhodes, Kelly Meggs, Kenneth Harrelson, Jessica Watkins, David Moerschel, Roberto Minuta, Edward Vallejo, Joseph Hackett, and Thomas Caldwell.

‘The President’s act of clemency did not alter this court’s original sentences.’

Oath Keepers who took plea deals and testified against Rhodes and his co-defendants received pardons, even for convictions of seditious conspiracy.

“I’ve got to get an application for pardon in front of President Trump as soon as possible,” Rhodes told Blaze News. “I’m going to start working on it today.”

On Jan. 20, President Trump said the 14 commutation cases will be examined further. “We are looking at different things, but the commutations would be the ones that we’ll take a look, and maybe it’ll stay that way or it’ll go to … a full pardon.”

Oath Keepers founder Elmer Stewart Rhodes III speaks to media at the District of Columbia jail on Jan. 24, 2025, advocating the release of pardoned Oath Keeper Jeremy Brown.Photo by Kayla Bartkowski/Getty Images

Rhodes said a commutation leaves him a felon exposed to possible arrest if someone just claims he was seen with a firearm or even if he is simply in a building where a firearm is found.

After his conviction for seditious conspiracy following a 2022 trial, Rhodes is not allowed to possess firearms.

“If you’re a felon in this country, you’re already a target,” Rhodes said.

Mehta’s ruling took some issue with the motion filed Jan. 24 by Edward Martin, the new U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia.

“The defendants, however, are no longer subject to the terms of supervised release and probation, as the Executive Order ‘commute(d) the sentences’ of these defendants,” Martin wrote in his motion. “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.”

Mehta said his original sentences cannot be dismissed.

“Insofar as the U.S. Department of Justice seeks to ‘dismiss’ defendants’ supervised release terms, the request is denied,” Mehta wrote. “The President’s act of clemency did not alter this court’s original sentences, which remain ‘intact.’ … Further, by virtue of the President’s commutation order, the court acknowledges that its conditions of supervision will not be enforced.”

Like Blaze News? Bypass the censors, sign up for our newsletters, and get stories like this direct to your inbox. Sign up here!