By Deborah Gembara, Andrew Goudsward and Andy Sullivan
CUMBERLAND, Maryland/WASHINGTON (Reuters) -Donald Trump supporters who attacked the U.S. Capitol four years ago will begin to leave prison on Tuesday, after the newly installed president issued a sweeping pardon that signaled he intends to make aggressive use of his executive power.
The Republican president’s pardon of 1,500 defendants on Monday, Inauguration Day, drew outrage from lawmakers who were endangered in the attack on Jan. 6, 2021, when thousands of Trump supporters stormed the Capitol in an unsuccessful attempt to prevent Congress from certifying Democrat Joe Biden’s 2020 victory.
Trump’s clemency extended from the hundreds of people who followed the crowd into the Capitol to the far smaller group who planned the assault on democracy, including some who assaulted and injured some 140 police officers that day.
Stewart Rhodes, the former leader of the Oath Keepers militia who had his 18-year prison sentence commuted, was released early on Tuesday after midnight in Cumberland, Maryland. Rhodes, who wears an eye patch after an accident with a gun, got into a waiting car and was driven away in the early morning hours.
Rhodes did not enter the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, but he was found guilty for plotting to use force against Congress to prevent the election certification. He was also accused of helping to stockpile firearms at a hotel in nearby Virginia that could be ferried across the river to Washington.
The family of Enrique Tarrio, former leader of the Proud Boys, said they expected his release on Tuesday. Tarrio was not present at the Capitol on Jan. 6, but was convicted of seditious conspiracy for his role in planning the attack.
“Donald Trump is ushering in a Golden Age for people that break the law and attempt to overthrow the government,” said Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer.
The attack was spurred by Trump’s refusal to acknowledge his defeat, which threatened the peaceful transfer of power for the first time in U.S. history. Roughly 140 police officers were assaulted during the attack and four people died during the chaos.
PROUD BOYS MARCH
Among those due to be released are leaders of the far-right Proud Boys organization, including some who were convicted of seditious conspiracy. About 40 men wearing Proud Boys insignia traded insults with protesters on the streets of Washington during Trump’s inauguration on Monday.
Others due for release include Dominic Pezzola, who was accused of stealing a police officer’s riot shield and using it to smash a window, beginning the breach of the Capitol.
Trump’s pardon was only one of a sheaf of executive orders he signed after an inauguration ceremony in the U.S. Rotunda, where his supporters had rampaged four years earlier.
Trump also kicked off a sweeping immigration crackdown, cut support for wind power and electric vehicles and cleared the way for oil drilling in the Arctic and in offshore areas. He withdrew from the Paris climate agreement and the World Health Organization.
He also delayed the ban of the popular TikTok video app that was due to be shuttered on Sunday.
However, Trump did not immediately impose tariffs on Mexico and Canada, as he had threatened to do.
Some of Trump’s executive orders, such as one removing the guarantee of citizenship to those born in the United States, could well be struck down in court.
His vow to rename the Gulf of Mexico to the Gulf of America drew a snicker during his swearing-in ceremony from Hillary Clinton, his Democratic 2016 presidential rival.
Other policy changes were already having a real-world impact. Along the U.S.-Mexico border, migrants despaired when their asylum appointments were canceled. Planes carrying more than 1,600 Afghan refugees who had been cleared for U.S. entry were to be turned back.
Trump, however, appears to be profiting from his return to power. A cryptocurrency he launched on Friday soared to more than $10 billion in market value on Monday, while another crypto venture connected to him, World Liberty Financial, raised $300 million in token sales.
(Reporting by Deborah Gembara in Cumberland, Maryland, and Andrew Goudsward, Andy Sullivan, Nathan Layne, Saran H. Lynch and Kanishka Singh in Washington, Writing by Andy Sullivan and Kanishka Singh; Editing by Scott Malone, Howard Goller, Sonali Paul and Chizu Nomiyama)
