Judge orders release of videos that challenge claims made by ‘QAnon Shaman’
By Emily Davies,
In the latest back-and-forth between an unamused federal judge and the man known as “QAnon Shaman,” the court released two videos Tuesday that the judge says showed that Jacob Anthony Chansley “blatantly lied” in a television interview about the Jan. 6 riot at the U.S. Capitol.
The videos U.S. District Judge Royce C. Lamberth ordered released challenge claims made by Chansley in a “60 Minutes+” interview last month, when he told CBS that he entered the Capitol building peacefully after police officers waved him in.
One of the videos shows Chansley — shirtless and wearing horns and face paint — holding an American flag atop scaffolding while rioters clashed with police officers beneath him.
[U.S. judge scolds ‘QAnon Shaman’ for appearing on ‘60 Minutes+’ without permission]
A second video shows Chansley walking through a door to the Capitol, adjacent to a window smashed by dozens of rioters. As people climbed through broken windows, Chansley walked through the door and someone is heard yelling, “This is our house!”
The clips do not show who opened the door.
“Not only is defendant unable to offer evidence substantiating his claim that he was waved into the Capitol, but evidence submitted by the government proves this claim false,” Lamberth wrote in a searing memorandum earlier this month denying Chansley’s motion for release.
During a hearing earlier this month, Lamberth also lambasted Chansley for appearing on the show without required permission from the U.S. Marshals Service, the detention facility or the judge.
Chansley’s attorney Albert Watkins said in a statement Tuesday that “the one dimensional world of video footage cannot be relied upon to navigate the assessment process.”
Watkins has asked the public to provide any video footage of Chansley in or around the Capitol on Jan. 6.
“It is hopeful that the video footage which is provided will assist both Mr. Chansley and the Government to garner a heightened degree of appreciation for the peaceful and non-violent nature of the Shaman and that which really occurred on January 6,” he said.
Watkins said there is a separate email address to collect footage of Chansley.
Chansley, who has become one of the most recognizable faces of the Capitol riot, is charged with violently entering the Capitol, among other felony charges. He has been in jail since he was arrested in his hometown of Phoenix on Jan. 9.
In February, a judge ordered Chansley moved to a jail in Virginia that serves organic food after he claimed that nonorganic food was against his religion.
Chansley has earlier appeared at a Trump rally carrying a sign that read “Q sent me” — referring QAnon, to an extremist ideology based on false claims.
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