Apache 2.4   mod_rewrite .htaccess   located in somedir

I want to do the following:

I am stuck in a viard issue.
I have the below set of RewriteRule configured in httpd.conf for one of my domain.

So I have an incoming request scenario where I need to read a query string parameter, set a cookie from that parameter, and then strip off the query string. Easy enough and it works. Except that it introduces an additional redirect that shouldn’t be necessary and it’s not clear to me why it’s doing so. I’m hoping someone here can see what I’m missing.

I have a rewrite rule as follows:

I’m trying to use RewriteCond and RewriteRule to strip a query string from all URLs on a site except for those in a specific URL. The problem I’m having is with the multiple conditionals that are required to combine the EXCEPT part that’s required.

In the root directory there is a .htaccess file, in the directory next to it there are html files to which the rule should apply, but for some reason it does not work.

What I want:
If the use doesn’t show his client certificate I want to show him a page with response code 401 unauthorized.
If a client like curl access the page without client cert I want to show him a json response with error code 401.