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January 6 defendants who received commutations from President Donald Trump are free to visit the U.S. Capitol without receiving prior permission, a federal judge ruled Monday.
District Judge Amit Mehta issued the order in response to a petition from Trump’s Justice Department. Some of the January 6 defendants had included a restriction on visiting the capitol as part of their sentences, and the DOJ requested that those requirements be removed.
Mehta declined to remove the restrictions from their sentencing documents, but acknowledged that the commutation from Trump means those restrictions will not be enforced.
“The U.S. Department of Justice’s motion is granted in part and denied in part,” Mehta wrote. “The court will not ‘dismiss’ the non-custodial portion of defendants’ sentences, but defendants are no longer bound by the judicially imposed conditions of supervised release.”
Jonathan Turley, Fox News Media contributor and the Shapiro Professor of Public Interest Law at George Washington University, called the order “very unusual” when it came down last week.
“The judge is relying on the fact that the sentences were commuted, but the defendants did not receive full pardons,” Turley told Fox News Digital.

President Donald Trump pardoned nearly all J6 defendants last week. (Scott Olson/Getty Images)
Trump pardoned nearly all Jan. 6 defendants earlier this week after promising to do so at his inaugural parade.