Donald Trump announced Monday that he would commute, pardon or dismiss cases against nearly 1,500 people accused of storming the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, in a deadly, failed attempt to stop certification of former President Joe Biden's victory.

One of those people is William Dunfee of Frazeysburg, Muskingum County, who was found guilty last January of two felony charges of obstruction of an official proceeding or aiding and abetting a civil disorder, and a misdemeanor charge of entering and remaining in a restricted building or grounds, according to a news release from the U.S. Attorney's office in Washington.

He had been sentenced to 30 months prison, three years supervised release, $2,000 restitution and a $1,000 fine.

The pastor of the New Beginnings Ministry in Warsaw, Coshocton County, Dunfee was arrested in October 2022 and accused by federal prosecutors of twice pushing a metal barricade against Capitol Police officers and using a bullhorn to rally the crowd, based on video evidence entered into court evidence. He was not charged with entering the Capitol building.

Nearly 80 Ohioans were arrested, charged and prosecuted for their actions on that day and are likely to have their cases overturned.

Trump and the White House made no apparent distinction between those who engaged in violence against police officers or vandalism and theft inside the Capitol and those who simply entered the building with the rioters.

President Trump on Monday called the insurrectionists convicted and imprisoned the "J6 hostages" during a media briefing and claimed that they were treated unjustly and unfairly. He said he did not discuss them during his inauguration address at the request of his wife, Melania, and Vice President JD Vance of Ohio.

In addition to pardoning those already sentenced, Trump's decree orders the U.S. Attorney General and the Department of Justice to dismiss, with prejudice, all pending cases against defendants who have not been convicted or sentenced.

Included in the list of 14 named insurrectionists whose sentences were commuted is Jessica Watkins, of Woodstock, Champaign County, an Army veteran and transgender woman who was sentenced to eight years and six months in prison. Watkins was a member of the Oath Keepers, a racist and far-right, anti-government militia, and had also created her own Ohio-based militia. She also ran a bar called the Jolly Roger, which has since closed.

Prosecutors described Watkins as a "pivotal organizer" of the attack on the Capitol, bringing weapons for the other members who were waiting in Virginia and entering the Capitol as part of the first group in tactical formation.

In her testimony, she called her decision to enter the Capitol "stupid," described being swept up in the moment, and said she regretted her decision.

Another Ohioan, Alexander Sheppard, of Powell, told The Dispatch he was watching live Monday night as Trump signed the executive order. Sheppard received a sentence of 19 months in prison but was released in May while the Supreme Court determined the legality of convictions like Sheppard's.

"It wasn't fair how we were treated," Sheppard said Tuesday, saying Trump's decision has given him and others a "new lease on life."

Sheppard, who called the storming of the U.S. Capitol a "false flag operation, according to federal prosecutors, said a jury pool of mostly "federal government workers" in Washington D.C. was unfair to him and all the other defendants and made receiving a fair trial "impossible."

"The prosecutors, the FBI agents, the judges all need to be looked at real seriously for civil rights violations for not only myself but all of us defendants," said Sheppard, echoing previous Trump statements .

Sheppard said many of his friends were released from federal prisons last night and he is grateful to Trump for "keeping his word" in issuing the pardons.

Dispatch reporter Bethany Bruner contributed to this story.