Washington Post. Democrats condemned Trump's commutation of Stone's sentence, viewing it as abuse of the rule of law that distorted the U.S. justice system to protect Trump's friends and undermine Trump's rivals. Representatives Jerrold Nadler and Carolyn B. Maloney, who chair two House committees, said that "No other president has exercised the clemency power for such a patently personal and self-serving purpose" and said that they would investigate whether Stone's commutation was a reward for protecting Trump. Most Republican elected officials remained silent on Trump's commutation of Stone. Exceptions were Republican Senators Mitt Romney, who termed the commutation "unprecedented, historic corruption," and Pat Toomey, who called the commutation a "mistake" due in part to the severity of the crimes of which Stone was convicted. On December 23, 2020, President Trump issued a full pardon to Stone. 2021 storming of the United States Capitol After Trump's November 2020 U.S. Presidential election loss, Stone urged followers to "fight until the bitter end". He appeared at the "Stop the Steal" rally on January 5, at Freedom Plaza, telling the crowd that the president's enemies sought "nothing less than the heist of the 2020 election and we say, No way!" And "… we will win this fight or America will step off into a thousand years of darkness. We dare not fail. I will be with you tomorrow shoulder to shoulder." The Washington Post reported that video footage showed Stone meeting with the Oath Keepers, a militia group indicted for seditious conspiracy for their role in the storming of the Capitol, on the day of the attack. In the weeks afterwards he pressured the Trump administration for a pardon of all Members of Congress who supported overturning the 2020 election, including Ted Cruz, Josh Hawley, Jim Jordan, and Matt Gaetz. On November 22, 2021, the House Select Committee on the January 6 Attack subpoenaed Stone and Alex Jones for testimony and documents by December 17 and 6, respectively. Stone agreed to appear before the committee, but invoked the Fifth Amendment and refused to answer the committee's questions during a 51 minute period. Stone also sued to prevent a subpoena of his AT&T cell phone metadata by the committee. The committee also revealed ties between Stone and the Proud Boys extremist group. On December 23, 2021, Stone urged a judge to dismiss a lawsuit filed against him by eight Capitol Police officers, alleging that he