Copied From the Wall Street Journal, posted Jan. 23, 2025 9:16 pm ET
Freed Jan. 6 Convicts Are Back on the Street and Ready to Help Trump
Some in law enforcement fear a surge in violence by far-right groups; Proud Boys leader jokes he could serve in the cabinet as ‘Secretary of Retaliation’
Enrique Tarrio of the Proud Boys is greeted as he arrives at the Miami airport after his release from prison. GIORGIO VIERA/REUTERS
By Khadeeja Safdar, Shalini Ramachandran, Vera Bergengruen and Tawnell D. Hobbs
Jan. 23, 2025 9:16 pm ET
Enrique Tarrio thought he would be in prison until 2040. As he waited to board a plane to Miami, now a free man thanks to President Trump, the Proud Boys leader wasn’t certain what was next for him except for one thing: retaliation.
The 40-year-old Tarrio was among the roughly 1,500 individuals who received pardons for their involvement in the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol. “I was innocent of the charges,” he said in an interview before his flight, but alleged the legal system was “weaponized” against him and others. Now, he said, it’s time to turn the tables and prosecute the prosecutors, including former Attorney General Merrick Garland.
“The name of the game for some of these people is to take the other opponent’s pieces off the board,” he said. “We can play that game.”
Trump’s sweeping pardons mark a dramatic turnaround for the far-right groups involved in the Jan. 6 attack. Some resorted to violence to try to prevent the certification of Trump’s 2020 electoral loss. The rampage led to the largest prosecution in Justice Department history. Former President Joe Biden vowed to defeat domestic extremism, launching a national effort to refocus U.S. national security agencies from foreign terrorism to what he said was the more pressing threat back home.
Proud Boys leader Enrique Tarrio, Oath Keepers founder Stewart Rhodes and Proud Boy Tom Vournas were among those released after President Trump granted clemency to Jan. 6 rioters.
The crackdown seemed to spell the end of many of the groups involved, including the Proud Boys and self-styled militias such as the Oath Keepers. As their leaders faced prison, the organizations were torn apart by infighting, members went underground, and many local chapters spun off or went silent.
Four years later, they are jubilant—and feeling vindicated. This week, dozens of Proud Boys once again marched through the streets of Washington. Oath Keepers founder Stewart Rhodes visited congressional offices on Capitol Hill, and waves of pardoned inmates were released from jail to cheers of “We are back!”
“Spirits are high within the fraternity right now as some of us return home from the inauguration and are reuniting with our brothers who have been locked away under harsh conditions for the past four years,” the Proud Boys of Kentucky said in an email. “We are forever grateful to President Trump for keeping his promises.”
Members of the Proud Boys march in Washington, D.C., on Monday. Photo: Christopher Lee for WSJ
When Trump was asked at a press event if there was a place for these groups in politics, he said, “Well, we have to see. They’ve been given a pardon. I thought their sentences were ridiculous and excessive.”
Some of the groups seem eager to demonstrate their loyalty to the president by directly participating in his initiatives, including his promised mass deportations.
“1/20/25: Trump is sworn in as President,” a recent Telegram post by an Ohio Proud Boys group said. “1/21/25: Me and the Proud Boys begin the deportations.”
In an interview Thursday, Rhodes said he would love to work for the Department of Government Efficiency, the Elon Musk-led effort to cut public spending; or with Tulsi Gabbard and Kash Patel, Trump’s nominees for national intelligence director and head of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, respectively.
Rhodes said he wants to push the federal government to declassify documents to take down the “deep state,” reform prisons and get “accountability and justice” for those convicted over their Jan. 6 involvement. Both Tarrio and Rhodes said they spent time in solitary confinement and were shipped from one prison to another.
Other sympathizers are surfacing with more ominous messages. On right-wing online forums that served as a staging ground for Jan. 6, dozens of posts call for the “traitors” involved in prosecuting the Capitol rioters to be brought to justice. “Execute them,” wrote one anonymous user.
Some former law-enforcement officials worry about the potential for renewed violence. Trump’s executive orders have been “putting labels on the enemy,” said Daryl Johnson, a former senior analyst at the Department of Homeland Security who focused on right-wing extremist groups. “With these orders targeting immigrants, LGBTQ, and other communities, these people could unleash their anger or violence against people they feel Trump is calling out.”
In Springfield, Ohio, a city that was thrust into the spotlight after Trump falsely accused Haitian migrants of eating pets, the Haitian Community Help and Support Center received a call this week threatening “You Haitians get ready. I will come for you.”
Miniature Haitian flags sit on shelves for sale in Springfield, Ohio. Photo: Tanner Pearson for WSJ
Trump’s decision “sends a very clear message to not just the people who are pardoned, but to the broader far-right militant movement that violent actions taken against perceived enemies or opponents of Donald Trump will be rewarded,” said former FBI agent Mike German, who worked undercover in white supremacist and militia groups.
Tarrio said he doesn’t condone violence, except in self-defense. He said that the Proud Boys have been more careful about who they let into the organization and disavowed some chapters.
During the 2020 election, both the Proud Boys and Oath Keepers provided private security to Trump allies, including GOP operative Roger Stone, and responded to Trump’s call to protest his loss. Now, many of their members who were pardoned this week made it clear they felt even greater loyalty.
“I don’t deify President Trump and I never have,” said Tarrio, who plans to advocate for pardons for the Proud Boys who had their sentences commuted and not pardoned. “But him giving me my life back puts him in a category that is equal to my family.” Tarrio was serving 22 years on seditious conspiracy and other charges, the longest sentence of anyone charged for their role in the Jan. 6 attack.
Tarrio joked that he would accept a cabinet position from Trump: “Secretary of Retaliation.”
It was an improbable twist in the saga of the Proud Boys, a group of self-described “Western chauvinists” who were viewed by law enforcement as more of a rowdy drinking club rather than a violent extremist group when they first emerged in 2016. The group, which took its name from a song in the musical “Aladdin,” reveled in macho bravado and denounced “political correctness.”
They rose in prominence after videos emerged online of violent clashes with left-wing protesters in Portland, Ore., and other cities. At a 2020 debate, Trump drew national attention to the group when he told them to “stand back and stand by” in response to a question asking him whether he condemned white supremacists.
After Jan. 6, Proud Boys members—wearing their distinctive black and yellow gear—mainly surfaced at smaller protests across the country, including support for antiabortion events and anti-immigration demonstrations.
The group, which has been designated as a terrorist group in Canada and New Zealand, lost around 10,000 members since Jan. 6, 2021, but in the lead-up to Trump’s 2024 election win, members have again coalesced, according to Tarrio. “We are gaining,” he said. “The club is in a way more unified place than it was before.”
The Proud Boys of Kentucky chapter posted on Telegram in January that “Our membership numbers are now higher than they have ever been throughout our history” and encouraged others to “reach out!”
Stewart Rhodes, the founder of the Oath Keepers, appeared in a coffee shop on Capitol Hill on Wednesday sporting a Trump 2020 hat. Created in 2009 as a self-styled antigovernment militia, the group preaches loyalty to the U.S. Constitution, not to any local or federal leader.
Oath Keepers Founder Stewart Rhodes, right, greets a supporter on Capitol Hill Wednesday. Photo: Kent Nishimura/Getty Images
Rhodes had been serving an 18-year sentence after being convicted of seditious conspiracy in 2023 in connection with Jan. 6. He told reporters that he’d met with Rep. Gus Bilirakis (R, Fla.) to advocate for the release of another member of his group, Jeremy Brown, and they had a “great conversation.” At another point, he said he was mobbed by fellow diners at a Brazilian steakhouse who wanted to take selfies with him.
A spokeswoman for Rep. Bilirakis confirmed that he met with Brown’s mother and girlfriend on Wednesday, and that Rhodes had joined them.
Jan. 6 prosecutors allege the Oath Keepers organized and trained weeks before the riots, and coordinated the day of the event to breach the U.S. Capitol. Many members were caught on camera wearing tactical vests, helmets, and radios, as they forcibly entered the building by placing a hand on the back of the person ahead—a military-style tactic prosecutors called a “stack.”
Rhodes maintained that he did nothing wrong on Jan. 6. President Trump commuted his sentence to time served as of Monday but didn’t grant him and other Oath Keepers a full pardon, as he did for most others.
His lawyer Edward Tarpley Jr. said on Thursday that Rhodes is seeking clarification from the Justice Department on the issue, including whether he needs to abide by the strict terms of supervised release, which include restrictions on contacts with “known or unknown” terrorist or extremist groups, approval from a probation officer to use social media or access online gaming networks like Discord, and monitoring software on all his devices.
“I didn’t enter the Capitol. I didn’t strike a police officer. None of my guys did either. We were railroaded for political purposes because of who we were,” said Rhodes, a 59-year-old former Army paratrooper and Yale Law School graduate. “We didn’t hatch a plan. There was no plot to invade the Capitol.” He added that he regrets that some of his guys went in. “They blundered in along with everybody else. It doesn’t make them criminals, it just makes them kind of stupid.”
In the interview, Rhodes said the future for the Oath Keepers is unclear, since the organization splintered in the wake of Jan. 6. Still, he sees a role for militia-style groups to help the administration with some of its policies, including border security and illegal immigration.
In 2021, a leaked roster of more than 38,000 members showed dozens of elected officials in its ranks, along with many police officers, sheriffs, and current and former military. “America’s veterans truly are like a sleeping giant,” a Florida Oath Keepers chapter’s recruitment materials say.
Demonstrators attempt to breach the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. Photo: Victor J. Blue/Bloomberg News
Security forces draw their guns as protesters try to break into the House Chamber. Photo: J. Scott Applewhite/Associated Press
The Journal reported in 2021 that Rhodes had already landed in hot water with his organization ahead of his participation in Jan. 6 due to allegations that he had misspent the organization’s money on hair dye, steaks and guns. Mr. Rhodes at the time called the allegations of misusing funds “petty, stupid and salacious” and said the accusers were “disgruntled people that have a bone to pick.”
While in jail, Rhodes started writing a book via email and created a Substack where he wrote about his intense support for Trump and belief in the Oath Keepers’ mission. The Substack solicits pledges of $80 a year or $8 a month, as well as a “founding” pledge of $150 a year. Rhodes said a friend set up the Substack and he hasn’t seen any money from it yet, as his bank accounts were shut down. “I got wiped out. I lost my motorcycle, lost my truck, my place where I was living,” he said. “I’ve got to rebuild.”
In recent days, some former Oath Keepers have expressed support for him, including Franklin Shook, who in 2022 released a book about the group. “I would give Stewart a second chance because I believe he might have had a change of heart in prison and will correct his mistakes,” said Shook, who goes by Elias Alias.
Rhodes’ cousin set up a GiveSendGo for him that has raised more than $28,000, with an influx of donations within the last few days. She said she’s handing the money to Rhodes for him to “get back on his feet.”
Rhodes told reporters on Wednesday that he’s focused on making sure the 14 Oath Keepers and Proud Boys who received commutations including himself receive full pardons.
“I spent three years in a very corrupt system,” he said. “The prison industrial complex wants to fill those beds, keep those guys in those buildings.”
The Fraternal Order of Police, the largest police union in the U.S., which endorsed Trump in the last election, said it was “deeply discouraged” by the pardon of the rioters who had engaged in violence.
“It sends a dangerous message that the consequences for attacking law enforcement are not severe, potentially emboldening others to commit similar acts of violence,” it said in a statement. Several judges involved in the Jan. 6 cases also criticized the pardon, accusing it of “whitewashing” the actions of the mob.
Roughly 280 defendants had links to 46 extremist groups and movements, according to the National Consortium for the Study of Terrorism and Responses to Terrorism at the University of Maryland, which tracks and analyzes extremist violence.
Several family members of the pardon recipients, including Rhodes’ ex-wife, have said they now fear for their own safety in the wake of their release. Dozens of the rioters were turned in by family members, neighbors or colleagues.
“I could really use a bit of a run fund, in case it comes to that,” Rhodes’ former wife, Tasha Adams, wrote on a GoFundMe page she created in 2021 that had raised more than $26,000 by Thursday.
As for Tarrio, he walked out of the Miami airport on Wednesday to a hero’s welcome. A small crowd cheered as the newly pardoned Proud Boy, wearing sunglasses and a black MAGA hat, hugged his mother before being whisked off in an SUV, trailed by cameras. A GiveSendGo fundraising page for his homecoming has raised more than $25,000. For now, he has been making the rounds on right-wing media, making his message clear.
“Success is gonna be retribution,” he told InfoWars. “We’ve got to do everything in our power to make sure that the next 4 years sets us up for the next 100 years.”
Starlings flock around the U.S. Capitol, seen behind security fencing ahead of President-elect Donald Trump’s inauguration on Jan. 18. Photo: Bing Guan for WSJ
Olivia Beavers contributed to this article.
Write to Khadeeja Safdar at khadeeja.safdar@wsj.com, Shalini Ramachandran at Shalini.Ramachandran@wsj.com, Vera Bergengruen at vera.bergengruen@wsj.com and Tawnell D. Hobbs at tawnell.hobbs@wsj.com
