Within hours, the Justice Department – which under the Biden administration had secured Rhodes' 2022 conviction – argued that Judge Amit Mehta didn't have the authority to issue that restriction. Trump commuted Rhodes' 18-year sentence Monday along with the sentences of 13 other defendants.

Donald Trump supporters who attacked the U.S. Capitol four years ago are beginning to leave prison, after the newly installed president issued a sweeping pardon that signalled he intends to make aggressive use of his executive power.

The move, in effect, validated the far-right leader’s defiant claim that his criminal prosecution was a kind of political persecution.