Federal Judge Amit Mehta has been forced to withdraw his order banning Oath Keeper founder Stewart Rhodes and others from not only the US Capitol but the entirety of Washington, DC. Judge Mehta issued the order after reports came that he was meeting with members of Congress.
“The court hereby amends the conditions of supervised release for Defendants Stewart Rhodes” and co-defendants, Mehta said in a one-page order effective noon Friday. “You must not knowingly enter the District of Columbia without first obtaining the permission from the Court. … You must not knowingly enter the United States Capitol Building or onto surrounding grounds known as Capitol Square.”
(Read Judge Mehta’s order.)
Mehta was trying to use an interpretation of Trump’s commutation order that only acknowledged the release from prison and kept them under “supervised release.”
There are 14 Jan6 defendants whose sentences were only commuted to “Time Served” — they were not pardoned. They have “Supervised Release” terms that follow their time in custody.
Work is currently underway among the attorneys for those 14 — I’m one of them — to address the… https://t.co/CRWIV2SICE
— Shipwreckedcrew (@shipwreckedcrew) January 24, 2025
That did not last long: see NEW: DOJ Pushes Back After Anti-Trump Judge Orders J6 Oath Keepers Barred From Capitol – RedState. Trump’s US Attorney for the District of Columbia quickly responded:
The Court entered an Order dated January 24, 2025 Amending Conditions of Release (ECF 940). 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. 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included in the “sentences” of the defendants, the Court may not modify the terms of supervised release; the term is no longer active by effect of the Executive Order.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 United States hereby indicates that the Order must be vacated.
The response to Mehta’s bizarre order, which essentially banned Rhodes and others from the equivalent of an entire state, was similar to Andrew Jackson’s apocryphal statement, “Mr. Marshall has made his decision; now let him enforce it.” It made clear that the executive branch did not agree with Mehta’s interpretation and would not play any role in enforcing it.
This put Mehta in the embarrassing position of standing his ground and being made a laughing stock or backing down and trying to save a little bit of dignity. He chose the latter. He’s probably still seething over seeing a man he called a ” peril to our democracy and the fabric of this country ” out of prison and hobnobbing with members of Congress while the Department of Justice is flying top cover.
