Rhodes’ appearance came the day after he was released from prison as a result of Trump’s order of clemency benefitting the more than 1,500 people charged with federal crimes in the Jan. 6

Stewart Rhodes, the founder of the Oath Keepers who was convicted of seditious conspiracy in relation to the Jan. 6, 2021, riot, was in the Capitol complex on Wednesday to meet with GOP lawmakers

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