Which January 6 defendants were specifically named in Trump’s proclamation and what were their original sentences?
Executive summary
The January 20, 2025 proclamation issued by President Trump granted sweeping clemency to roughly 1,500 people charged in connection with the January 6, 2021, attack and separately commuted the prison terms of 14 individuals—described by the White House and multiple outlets as members of the Oath Keepers and Proud Boys—whose names the administration displayed at a signing ceremony [1] [2]. Public reporting identifies some of those 14 by name, and a smaller subset of those individuals’ original prison terms has been reported; however, available sources do not provide a single, fully sourced list of every named person and every original sentence within the materials provided for this review [2] [3] [4].
1. What the proclamation actually did and how the White House presented names
The proclamation established two clemency categories: a blanket pardon for the vast majority of individuals convicted of January 6–related offenses and a separate commutation-to-time-served for 14 people whose names were shown by the president at the signing [1] [3]. Multiple outlets reported that the White House publicly displayed a list of named defendants during the Oval Office signing, and the administration’s text and press materials framed the action as remedying a “grave national injustice” [1] [2].
2. Who reporting explicitly says was named in the proclamation
Several mainstream outlets and advocacy groups singled out that the 14 commutations included members of the Oath Keepers and Proud Boys and specifically mentioned leaders such as Oath Keepers founder Stewart Rhodes as among those whose sentences were commuted [2] [5]. Reporting also identified Proud Boys leader Enrique Tarrio and militia-aligned defendants such as Thomas Caldwell as figures tied to the commutation list in coverage summarizing the president’s actions [2] [6].
3. Which original sentences are reported in the sources provided
Some original sentences for named defendants are explicitly reported in the provided sources: Enrique Tarrio was reported as having been convicted of seditious conspiracy and sentenced to 22 years in prison prior to clemency [4]. David Dempsey was described in commentary as serving a 20‑year sentence for violent attacks on officers before receiving a full pardon in one account [7]. Thomas Caldwell’s convictions and that Trump acted on his sentence are mentioned, though the excerpt provided here does not include a precise original term for Caldwell in the supplied snippet [6]. Stewart Rhodes is identified as one of the commuted individuals in reporting, but the excerpts supplied do not specify his original sentence length [2].
4. Limits of the record provided and why exact mapping is incomplete
The documents and news snippets assembled for this briefing confirm the broad contours—blanket pardons and 14 commutations, inclusion of Oath Keepers and Proud Boys leaders, and that a list was displayed—but they do not together furnish a single, fully detailed roster from the proclamation matched to verified sentencing figures for each named defendant [3] [1] [2]. Where outlets do give sentence lengths, they are sometimes in opinion pieces or secondary reporting and the selected excerpts here do not capture a comprehensive sentencing table for all 14 commuted names [7] [4] [6].
5. Competing narratives and implied agendas in the sources
The White House framing presented the clemency as corrective and restorative, characterizing defendants as politically prosecuted [1], while mainstream and advocacy reporting framed the action as controversial, noting that several commuted individuals were convicted of seditious conspiracy or violent attacks on officers [2] [8]. Advocacy groups and watchdogs highlighted concerns about public safety and the bypassing of normal DOJ processes, indicating clear political and institutional divisions in how the action was portrayed [5] [9].
6. Bottom line
Reporting confirms that the proclamation specifically named and commuted the sentences of 14 defendants—reported to include Oath Keepers and Proud Boys leaders such as Stewart Rhodes and Enrique Tarrio—and that some of those individuals had lengthy prison terms (Tarrio cited at 22 years; Dempsey cited at 20 years in commentary), but the assembled source excerpts here do not provide a complete, source-verified list matching every named defendant in the proclamation to each defendant’s original sentence length [2] [4] [7] [6]. For a definitive roster and sentencing table, the proclamation text and official DOJ or court records would need to be consulted directly; those primary documents are not fully reproduced in the reporting excerpts provided [1] [3].