When Stewart Rhodes, the founder of the Oath Keepers militia, appeared in court in 2023 to be sentenced on sedition charges stemming from the storming of the Capitol, he angrily declared himself a “political prisoner,” echoing language that President Trump has also used to describe those involved with the events of Jan. 6, 2021. And on Monday, when Mr. Trump commuted Mr. Rhodes’ 18-year prison term to time served, he effectively validated the far-right leader’s belief that his criminal prosecution was a kind of political persecution, as he had defiantly claimed. Mr. Rhodes, who spent more than a decade running...