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(CNN) — Several members of the Oath Keepers, a far-right extremist group, cannot enter Washington, DC, or the grounds of the US Capitol without first receiving court permission, a federal judge said Friday, days after President Donald Trump commuted their prison sentences.
The brief order from US District Judge Amit Mehta said that Stewart Rhodes, the founder of the group, and seven other Oath Keeper members “must not knowingly” enter either the District of Columbia or the “United States Capitol Building or onto surrounding grounds … without first obtaining the permission from the Court.”
In addition to Rhodes, the new restrictions also apply to Kelly Meggs, Kenneth Harrelson, Jessica Watkins, Roberto Minuta, Edward Vallejo, David Moerschel and Joseph Hackett. Most of them had been serving time in prison for their conviction of seditious conspiracy until Trump commuted their sentences within hours of taking office earlier this week.
Trump also left open the possibility that he might grant them pardons. The president on Monday pardoned more than 1,000 people charged in the January 6, 2021, attack on the US Capitol.
Since being released from prison earlier this week, Rhodes, who was serving an 18-year sentence, was spotted Wednesday on Capitol Hill. He told CNN that he had no regrets about his actions that led to his prosecution under the Biden Justice Department.
“Well, I don’t regret standing up for my country, I don’t regret calling out the election as what it was, which was stolen, illegal and unconstitutional,” he said.
In a dramatic turnaround, the Justice Department is now defending the January 6 defendants, arguing the travel restrictions should be wiped away.
“If a judge decided that Jim Biden, General Mark Milley, or another individual were forbidden to visit America’s capital — even after receiving a last-minute, preemptive pardon from the former President — I believe most Americans would object. The individuals referenced in our motion have had their sentences commuted – period, end of sentence,” interim US Attorney Edward Martin said in a statement.
A brief filing from Martin argues the restrictions should be lifted because the eight individuals’ terms of supervised release and probation are part of the sentences that were commuted by the president.
“The Court may not modify the terms of supervised release,” Martin wrote in the filing, adding that those terms are no longer in effect as a result of Trump’s executive action.
The-CNN-Wire
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