WASHINGTON — An extremist group leader who orchestrated an assault on the U.S. Capitol four years ago defended his role in the attack as he returned to the scene of the crime on Wednesday, while judges who sentenced hundreds of rioters criticized the presidential pardons that have freed scores of them from prison.

Oath Keepers founder Stewart Rhodes visited Capitol Hill after he was released from prison as part of President Donald Trump’s sweeping clemency order for the nearly 1,600 people charged in the Jan. 6, 2021, riot.

Rhodes was convicted of seditious conspiracy in one of the serious cases brought by the Justice Department in the siege that halted the certification of President Joe Biden’s victory and left more than 100 police officers injured. Rhodes was found guilty of orchestrating a weekslong plot that culminated in his followers attacking the U.S. Capitol in a desperate bid to keep Trump in power.

On Wednesday, Rhodes insisted members of the Oath Keepers were not responsible for the violence that day.

— The Associated Press