After ascending to the top of the GOP ticket in March 2024, Donald Trump made a promise.
“My first acts as your next President will be to Close the Border, DRILL, BABY, DRILL, and Free January 6 Hostages being wrongfully imprisoned,” he wrote at the time on his Truth Social platform.
On his first day back in office on Monday, Trump stayed true to his word on the rioters and granted clemency to more than 1,500 supporters charged with crimes connected to the January 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol building.
While an overwhelming majority of defendants were issued full pardons, five members of the far-right Proud Boys and nine members of the Oath Keepers militia had their sentences commuted. Trump has also issued full pardons for two Proud Boys members.
Here are the highest profile Proud Boys and Oath Keeper members, and most memorable insurgents who received clemency from Trump, and a reminder of the crimes they committed:
Enrique Tarrio – former Proud Boys leader
The former leader of the all-male group of proud “Western chauvinists” — which is listed as a terrorist entity by the Canadian government — was issued a full presidential pardon on Monday, his family told CBS News.
Tarrio, 42, was serving a 22-year sentence after being convicted of seditious conspiracy and other charges related to the Jan. 6 insurrection.
Unlike many others on this list, Tarrio was not physically present at the Capitol during the riot. However, prosecutors argued that he played a central role in orchestrating the events from outside Washington, D.C.
He is expected to touch down at Miami International Airport on Tuesday evening after flying from Dallas Love Field airport, a family spokesperson said.
Gabriel Garcia
Garcia, a former US Army captain, has also been issued a full pardon from Trump.
The 43-year-old was allegedly hand-picked by Tarrio to join a national rally planning chapter of the Proud Boys called the “Ministry of Self Defense” before the riot.
Garcia, who joined a later wave of rioters in the afternoon, was accused of participating in aggressive confrontations with police and helping others storm the Capitol.
He was sentenced to 12 months in prison in December 2024 after being convicted on charges of obstruction of law enforcement during a civil disorder and obstruction of an official proceeding.
“I was facing up to 27 years, 27 years for walking in a building with a flag. I didn’t hurt anybody, I didn’t destroy anything, I didn’t burn down a city, and I sure as hell didn’t go in there to stop any process or kill anybody,” Garcia told CBS News.
Ethan Nordean
A Proud Boy leader and recruiter from Auburn, Washingto, Nordean received a commuted sentence.
Nordean, who also goes by Rufio Panman, was arrested four weeks after the Capitol riot and in May 2023, was one of four Proud Boys leaders found guilty of seditious conspiracy — among other charges.
Prosecutor Jason McCullough said that Nordean was “the undisputed leader on the ground” on Jan. 6.
The neo-fascist activist was sentenced to 18 years in prison in September 2023, before his sentence was commuted to time served by Trump on Monday.
Joseph Biggs
Biggs was another of four Proud Boys leaders serving a prison sentence after he was found guilty of seditious conspiracy in August 2023 and sentenced to 17 years in prison.
Last month, the attorney for Volusia County chapter leader, Norm Pattis, requested that Trump grant his client a “complete pardon.”
On Monday, Biggs had his sentence commuted by Trump, and the Federal Bureau of Prisons shows that he’s since been released.
Zachary Rehl
The leader of the Proud Boys’ Philadelphia chapter was arrested after a video showed him spraying a chemical irritant at police officers during the riot.
Rehl, another of the four leaders convicted of seditious conspiracy, was serving a 15-year term in medium-security federal prison at FCI Petersburg in Hopewell, Virginia, when his sentence was commuted.
He was also part of the “Ministry of Self Defense,” according to prosecutors. He later told the group that he was “proud as f*** [of] what we accomplished.”
Dominic Pezzola
Pezzola, the fourth Proud Boy found guilty of seditious conspiracy, was almost a year and a half into a 10-year prison term when his sentence was commuted by Trump on Monday.
Touted as an enthusiastic foot soldier by prosecutors, he exclaimed, “Trump won!” upon being escorted out of the courtroom.
The New Yorker is believed to have breached the Capitol building by smashing a window with a police riot shield and later filmed a “celebratory video” with a cigar, prosecutors said.
Jeremy Bertino
Bertino was the government’s star witness in the Proud Boys sedition trial — after himself pleading guilty to seditious conspiracy in October 2022 and agreeing to cooperate with prosecutors. He hadn’t been serving prison time when Trump extended an olive branch.
The North Carolina member, who had his sentence commuted Monday, testified in March 2023 that the group wanted to act as the “tip of the spear” in the attack on the Capitol.
Bertino was not physically present at the attack because he was recovering from being stabbed at another Proud Boys riot in December 2020.
Elmer Stewart Rhodes III – Oath Keepers founder
Founder and former head of the Oath Keepers, Rhodes was serving an 18-year prison stint when his sentence was commuted.
The far-right extremist group, which was founded in 2009, is comprised of roughly 5,000 members — many of whom are military veterans or former law enforcement officers.
Several Oath Keepers were seen sporting paramilitary gear outside the Capitol, moving “in an organized and practiced fashion,” according to an indictment.
Prosecutors showed jurors encrypted messages and recordings where Rhodes, a former paratrooper who wears an eyepatch after accidentally shooting himself in the face, spoke of commenting on a “bloody” civil war and calling members to “rise up in insurrection” to defeat Biden.
Before Jan. 6, Rhodes told members on his website: “It is CRITICAL that all patriots who can be in D.C. get to D.C. to stand tall in support of President Trump’s fight to defeat the enemies foreign and domestic who are attempting a coup, through the massive voter fraud and related attacks on our Republic.”
Kelly Meggs
The leader of the Oath Keepers’ Florida chapter was found guilty of seditious conspiracy in November 2022.
Kelly was serving a 12-year sentence when his punishment was commuted by the president on Monday.
Weeks before the insurrection, prosecutors said that Meggs wrote in a group chat that Trump “called us all to the Capitol and wants us to make it wild… Sir Yes Sir!”
He is said to have added: “I’m gonna go on a killing spree.”
Meggs contested that he was sitting on the steps outside the front of the Capitol building and unintentionally “got sucked in,” he told New 6 in January 2022.
Kenneth Harrelson and Jessica Watkins
Two more U.S. Army veterans who stormed the Capitol had their sentences commuted on Monday.
Both Watkins and Harrelson were handed prison time in May 2023, eight and half years and four years, respectively.
They were both acquitted of seditious conspiracy charges but were convicted of other Jan. 6-related charges, including obstructing Congress’ certification of Biden’s victory.
Watkins, an Oath Keeper recruiter, and Harrelson, the so-called ground team lead, were among the group that marched towards the Capitol in “stack” formation.
Watkins is said to have communicated over a channel called “Stop the Steal J6,” while Harrison screamed “treason” as he stormed the chamber, prosecutors said.
Five other Oath Keepers commuted
Several other high-ranking Oath Keeper members also had their sentences commuted by Trump on Monday.
They include Navy veteran Thomas Caldwell, tattoo artist Roberto Minuta, a member in charge of stockpiling weapons Edward Vallejo, Sarasota Chapter leader Joseph Hackett and former neuroscientist David Moerschel.
Jacob Chansley – ‘QAnon Shaman’
The spear-wielding, bare-chested Jan. 6 rioter known as the “Qanon Shaman” was issued a full pardon by Trump.
Jacob Chansley from Phoenix, Arizona, was one of the first Trump supporters to descend on the Capitol building. In November 2021, Chansley pleaded guilty to a felony charge of obstructing an official and was ordered to serve 41 months in prison – one of the longest sentences received by a rioter – but was released after 27 months in May 2023
He became a worldwide symbol for the insurrection sporting a horned fur hat made from raccoon fur, his red, white and blue face paint and use of a bullhorn to rile up the mob.
“Our rights are given to us by God not government. Freedom is our natural state of being. My spirit is free, I was born to be wild [and] I am gonna travel around the country now that I finally can!,” Chansley told The Independent when reached for comment.
Doug Jensen
Prosecutors pitted Doug Jensen as a “leader of the mob”. Supporters hailed him as a patriot and donated money via GiveSendGo in their droves.
The QAnon T-shirt-wearing rioter went viral as he was filmed pursuing a Capitol Police officer up a stairway near the Senate chamber.
“Jensen was the rioter who would not back down,” they argued. “If it wasn’t all recorded from at least 10 different angles, it’d be pretty hard to believe.”
In September 2022, Jensen was found guilty of obstruction of a law enforcement officer during civil disorder, among six other felony charges. In December that year, he was sentenced to five years in prison, with three years of supervised release.
Jensen was issued a full presidential pardon.
