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.

Oath Keepers founder Stewart Rhodes, the far-right extremist group leader convicted of seditious conspiracy in the Jan. 6, 2021, attack, has visited Capitol Hill after President Donald Trump commuted his 18-year prison sentence.

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