By Katelyn Polantz and Holmes Lybrand, CNN

(CNN) — High-profile January 6 rioter Guy Reffitt showed up in Washington, DC, on Wednesday to celebrate with his wife and supporters who’d been hoping for his release from federal detention for months.

But he should not have been walking free — even after President Donald Trump on Monday pardoned him and more than 1,200 others for January 6-related crimes.

That’s because Reffitt was indicted on a charge of possessing an illegal gun silencer three years ago. A federal judge in Texas ordered him to remain in jail until he is tried in that case, where he has pleaded not guilty.

After Trump’s pardon, his lawyer filed court papers to convince the judge to release him as he awaits trial. The judge hadn’t yet decided whether to release Reffitt.

Contacted late this week by CNN, even his own attorney and some federal authorities believed Reffitt was and should still be in custody.

Davilyn Walston, a spokesperson for the Justice Department in the Eastern District of Texas, said Friday that Reffitt should still be in detention because of the alleged firearms violation. Walston noted the indictment against Reffitt was still pending and that prosecutors were still pursuing the gun case.

Yet Reffitt was released soon after Trump’s pardon.

The situation highlights how the Capitol riot investigation turned up a handful of additional criminal proceedings for some defendants, like the gun charge against Reffitt, that now may be complicated by the sweeping Trump clemency for January 6 defendants.

It is not clear where Reffitt is as of Friday. His wife, Nicole Reffitt, didn’t respond to inquiries from CNN on Friday morning.

When reached by CNN on Thursday and informed Reffitt was no longer in jail, his lawyer on the gun case responded, “That would be news to me.”

“I thought he still was, to be honest with you. I spoke with his family on Tuesday,” said James Joseph Mongaras Jr., Reffitt’s Dallas-based attorney.

An attorney representing Reffitt for his January 6 actions, Clinton Broden, also of Dallas, told CNN on Friday he had “no idea” about Reffitt’s situation and that he hasn’t spoken to Reffitt since he was released.

In Reffitt’s gun case, he’s accused of having a black silencer with no markings or IDs 10 days after the Capitol riot.

Reffitt was the first rioter to be convicted by a jury, having transported guns into DC, rallied rioters toward the Capitol and carried a handgun onto the restricted federal grounds on January 6. He also threatened his son and daughter when he returned to Texas after the riot, leading to an additional obstruction of justice conviction in his January 6 case.

His son Jackson Reffitt ultimately turned him into the authorities, fearful for his own safety, and some of Guy Reffitt’s children testified against him in the Washington, DC, court proceedings. A federal judge sentenced him to more than 6 years in prison.

Still, his daughters and wife have been outspoken supporters of him and other January 6 detainees.

The day after Reffitt’s January 6 pardon, his attorney Mongaras asked the federal court in Texas to revisit its decision to keep him detained.

“Reffitt is not a flight risk, and not a danger to the community,” Reffitt’s lawyer wrote to the court. Mongaras suggested to the court he could remain under electronic monitoring, home confinement or a court-ordered curfew instead of behind bars, if the Texas-based judge thought that would be appropriate as he awaits trial.

The Justice Department hasn’t responded yet in court. The judge set a hearing on the matter for next week.

Some federal authorities believed Reffitt was still in Oklahoma in a local jail because of his pending case, according to multiple sources familiar with the situation. But a spokesperson for the jail in Oklahoma confirmed to CNN he was not there on Friday.

A Bureau of Prisons inmate locator online noted that Reffitt was “not in BOP custody as of” Tuesday. A spokesman for the BOP, Donald Murphy, said Trump’s pardon proclamation noted that inmates held in federal prisons should be released immediately.

“Our interpretation is if they were on our list and were in prison, they were to be released,” Murphy wrote in an email to CNN.

The Marshals Service, in a statement earlier this week, said January 6 prisoners who were pardoned “have or will be released, unless charged in other cases unrelated to January 6th.” The agency did not comment on Reffitt.

After his release, Reffitt made it to DC by Wednesday to visit his supporters outside of the DC Jail who were awaiting the release of others Capitol riot defendants whose federal January 6 cases weren’t yet concluded.

He arrived with his wife, Nicole, who’s become a celebrity among the January 6 supporters and who moved to DC months ago to keep vigil outside the jail, despite her husband being transported in detention around the country.

Nicole Reffitt shared a photo online on Wednesday of her husband wearing a Trump hat and standing next to Stewart Rhodes, the founder of the right-wing extremist group Oath Keepers, who was convicted of seditious conspiracy and who is newly released from prison because of Trump’s clemency.

CNN also spoke with Guy and Nicole Reffitt outside the DC Jail on Wednesday.

When asked what Guy Reffitt would say to Trump, he responded on camera, “Thank you very much and, you know, promises made, promises kept.”

CNN’s Kim Berryman contributed reporting.

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