BURSTA Jan. 6 defendant who was tried alongside leaders of the Oath Keepers was pardoned by President Trump on Monday, after previously receiving a sentence commutation.
Thomas Caldwell, a U.S. Navy veteran from Virginia, stood trial in 2022 alongside Oath Keepers founder Stewart Rhodes for seditious conspiracy. Federal prosecutors said he called for civil war ahead of the 2021 Capitol attack and played a key role in the anti-government militia's planning ahead of the riot.
While Rhodes was convicted of the rare Civil War-era charge, Caldwell was acquitted of all conspiracy counts. He was found guilty of two other felonies, but after the Supreme Court narrowed an obstruction charge used against scores of rioters, one of those two counts was vacated. A federal judge sentenced him to time served, rendering Trump's clemency toothless.
Caldwell's only remaining conviction was tampering with evidence for deleting messages he sent after the riot. Throughout the trial, he maintained he never formally joined the Oath Keepers and was not a member.
On Jan. 6, 2021, he neither entered the Capitol nor donned tactical gear, like other members of the group. Instead, he and his wife joined rioters at the Lower West Terrace's exterior on the opposite side of the building from the Oath Keepers, wearing street clothes.
Still, prosecutors described him as an "avid and willing participant in an unprecedented crime," drilling down on his efforts to help the group create an armed "quick reaction force" — a cache of weapons stored across the Potomac River in case the plan went south.
The president initially commuted Caldwell's sentence alongside the sentences of 13 other Oath Keepers, including Rhodes, and leaders of the right-wing Proud Boys. He granted full pardons for the roughly 1,500 other Jan. 6 defendants, including Proud Boys leader Enrique Tarrio.