Stewart Rhodes, the former head of the Oath Keepers militia, was among Jan. 6 inmates freed under President Trump's pardons and commutations.

Rhodes and Tarrio were among the most prominent defendants from January 6 and had received some of the harshest punishments.

Former Proud Boys extremist group leader Enrique Tarrio and Oath Keepers founder Stewart Rhodes have been released from prison after their lengthy sentences for seditious conspiracy convictions in the Jan.

President Donald Trump on Monday pardoned more than 1,000 people charged in the January 6, 2021, attack on the US Capitol, and commuted the sentences of leaders of the Proud Boys and Oath Keepers.

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

Trump's blanket order came the same day that Joe Biden used the final minutes of his presidency to issue pre-emptive pardons for his brothers and sister, as well as members of the US House of Representatives committee whose investigation into the Capitol riot concluded Trump was to blame.

Proud Boys leader Enrique Tarrio and Oath Keepers leader Stewart Rhodes were released from prison following President Donald Trump's pardon for Jan. 6 rioters.

Trump suggested there could be a place in U.S. politics for the Proud Boys and Oath Keepers, extremist groups whose leaders were convicted of seditious conspiracy against the U.S.

Oath Keepers founder Stewart Rhodes says he felt relief when he heard President Donald Trump was taking action to pardon him and other Jan. 6 defendants. (AP Video: Nathan Ellgren)

Five of the Oath Keepers who had sentences commuted by the president on Monday -- including Rhodes, who was facing 18 years in prison for seditious conspiracy -- were military veterans.

These employees likely won't return to work: All employees of offices “focusing exclusively on DEIA initiatives and programs” will go on paid administrative leave Wednesday afternoon. Charles Ezell, the Office of Personnel Management’s acting director, directed agencies to submit plans by Jan. 31 to permanently fire the employees.