Tag: qanon shaman
Prosecutors Ask Court To Deliver Stiff Sentence For ‘QAnon Shaman’

Prosecutors Ask Court To Deliver Stiff Sentence For ‘QAnon Shaman’

Reprinted with permission from DailyKos

Jacob Chansley puffed out his chest, howled like an animal, and paraded his half-naked, horn-adorned body onto the Senate floor during the insurrection at the Capitol. For his obstruction to Congress' efforts to certify the 2020 election, prosecutors have recommended a sentence of four years in prison.

In a memo issued late Tuesday at the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, prosecutors say Chansley, who also goes by the name Jake Angeli, effectively made himself the "public face of the Capitol riot" when he stormed into the complex wielding a six-foot-long spear-tipped flagpole, marauded through the chambers, and began hollering that then-Vice President Mike Pence was "a traitor."

The 33-year-old was among some of the first people to breach the building on January 6.

Chansley "[riled] up other members of the mob with his screaming obscenities about our nation's lawmakers and flouting the 'opportunity' to rid our government of those he has long considered to be traitors," U.S. Attorney Matthew Graves and assistant U.S. attorney Kimberly Paschall wrote in the 28-page sentencing memo.

The recommendation of 51 months from the Justice Department, or just over four years in prison, is the harshest one yet for defendants tied to the insurrection. The only other felony Capitol riot defendant that has been sentenced so far is Paul Hodgkins. The U.S. requested 18 months for Hodgkins, but he received an eight-month sentence instead.

Hodgkins, originally from Florida, breached the Capitol with a backpack, goggles, rope, and white latex gloves on hand, and proceeded to barrel through to the floor of the Senate while hoisting a "Trump 2020" flag over his shoulder.

Incidentally, during the assault, Hodgkins stood nearby as Chansley led a group invocation, where he prayed with fellow rioters.

"Thank you for allowing the United States of America to be reborn. Thank you for allowing us to get rid of the communists, the globalists, and the traitors within our government," he said.

Notably, he also left an ominous note on the dais in the Senate during the attack reading, "It's only a matter of time. Justice is coming!"

Chansley fancied himself the "QAnon Shaman" when he was an avowed zealot for the QAnon conspiracy. That belief system is one he now claims to have divorced himself from completely. His attorney, Albert Watkins released a statement on Chansley's behalf in September to the Huffington Post saying that the "long avowed and practicing shaman has repudiated the 'Q' previously assigned to him."

"The road leading up to the events of January 6 traversed years," Watkins said in a statement this fall. "The path charted by Mr. Chansley since January 6 has been a process, one which has involved pain, depression, solitary confinement, introspection, recognition of mental health vulnerabilities, and a coming to grips with the need for more self-work."

Watkins, in response to the recommended 51- month sentence, defended Chansley as someone suffering from "mental health vulnerabilities" as evidenced, at the very least, he argued, by the exposure of his half-nude body while the weather in Washington that morning was below 40 degrees.

"His Shamanic chants were further indicia of mental health vulnerabilities. So too was the rapid clip at which his widely published post-Capitol entry speech was uttered. So too were his gait and apparent Forrest Gump-like obliviousness too much of the activity and many of the actions of those surrounding him as he approached, entered, and traversed the Capitol," Watkins said. "The events that led Mr. Chansley to do what he did on January 6, 2021, antedate his presence in the Capitol. He was not an organizer. He was not a planner. He was not violent. He was not destructive. He was not a thief."

Watkins also emphasized that Chansley's unaddressed schizophrenia should be considered by the court when rendering its final decision.

"Mr. Chansley is not a political prisoner. He does not seek to be labeled such. Rather, this case is about a frail and vulnerable human," Watkins wrote.

Watkins did not offer a specific recommendation for sentencing, only urging that it be far less than the prosecutor's suggestion. The Arizona native has so far spent 10 months in pre-trial detention.

Prosecutors, however, offered a far tougher position on Chansley.

"The need for the sentence to provide specific deterrence to this particular defendant also weighs heavily in favor of a lengthy term of incarceration. Although the defendant has now expressed remorse and contrition, his media statements immediately after January 6 were those of a man gloating over victory in battle," U.S. attorneys wrote.

Chansley did not express remorse upon leaving the Capitol or when going home, they argued.

"It came when he realized he was in trouble. It came when he realized that large numbers of Americans and people worldwide were horrified at what happened that day. It came when he realized that he could go to jail for what he did," the memo states.

Jacob Chansley, or the "QAnon Shaman," during the January 6 Capitol riot.

Seeking Plea Deal, Lawyer Claims 'QAnon Shaman' Was 'Unarmed, Harmless, Peaceful'

Notorious Capitol rioter Jacob Chansley, better known as the "QAnon shaman," is negotiating a possible plea deal with prosecutors after psychologists found he suffers from multiple mental illnesses, his lawyer told Reuters -- while painting a rosy image of the violent insurrectionist's part during the Capitol riot.

According to Albert Watkins, Chansley's defense lawyer, he was diagnosed with transient schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, depression, and anxiety by officials at the federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP). The findings have not yet been made public.

"As he spent more time in solitary confinement ... the decline in his acuity was noticeable, even to an untrained eye," Watkins told Reuters, adding Chansley's 2006 records from his time in the Navy show similar results.

Watkins also tried to spin Chansley's role in the deadly Capitol insurrection, saying, "What we've done is we've taken a guy who is unarmed, harmless, peaceful ... with a pre-existing mental vulnerability of significance, and we've rendered him a chocolate soup mess."

But Chansley was anything but "unarmed, harmless, peaceful," according to video from within the Capitol he breached with a crowd of Trump-supporting extremists bearing his trademark headdress, face paint and spear.

It's not the first time Watkins has tried to downplay the danger Chansley presented during the Capitol riot and claim the spear he wielded wasn't a weapon.

During an attempt to get his client out of jail in late June, the lawyer called the spear a "flagpole," adding that it was "useless" and just "part of the shaman costume."

The prosecutor, James Nelson, wasn't convinced, noting that Watkins "has been talking for more than 20 minutes and hasn't said a single correct thing," during the hearing.

It is not clear if Chansley, whose charges include civil disorder and obstructing an official proceeding, is considering pleading guilty, but, according to Reuters, "defendants negotiating plea deals typically seek to plead to a less serious charge to reduce their potential prison sentences."

Jacob Chansley, aka the QAnon Shaman, during the January 6 Capitol riot.

'QAnon Shaman’ Lawyer Calls Capitol Rioters ‘Retarded’ And ‘Manipulated’

Reprinted with permission from Alternet

Jacob Chansley, dubbed the "QAnon Shaman" in the media, is among the most famous of the Capitol rioters who is facing federal criminal charges in connection with the January 6 insurrection. Albert Watkins, Chansley's attorney, discussed his client with Talking Points Memo's Matt Shuham — who reports that Watkins indicated that he is using his client's mental state as a defense.

Watkins told Shuham, "A lot of these defendants — and I'm going to use this colloquial term, perhaps disrespectfully — but they're all fucking short-bus people. These are people with brain damage, they're fucking retarded, they're on the goddamn spectrum. But they're our brothers, our sisters, our neighbors, our coworkers — they're part of our country. These aren't bad people; they don't have prior criminal history. Fuck, they were subjected to four-plus years of goddamn propaganda, the likes of which the world has not seen since fucking Hitler."

The propaganda that Watkins is obviously referring to is the propaganda of former President Donald Trump. The rioters who attacked the Capitol on January 6 bought into Trump's false and totally debunked claim that the 2020 election was stolen from him. And Watkins is arguing that they were manipulated by the former president.

Watkins wrote that Chansley has been consistent "in his assertion that but for the actions and the words of the President, he would not have appeared in Washington, DC to support the President and, but for the specific words of the then-President during his January 6, 2021 speech, the Defendant would not have walked down Pennsylvania Avenue and would not have gone into the U.S. Capitol Building."

Jacob Chansley

Judge Berates ‘QAnon Shaman’ For ‘Publicity Stunt’

Reprinted with permission from Alternet

Jacob Chansley, known as the so-called "QAnon Shaman," is among the many far-right extremists facing criminal charges in connection with the January 6 assault on the U.S. Capitol Building. When Chansley's attorney, Albert Watkins, appeared at a bail hearing last week on March 5, Judge Royce Lamberth of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia denounced Chansley's recent appearance on60 Minutes Plus as a "media publicity stunt."

At the hearing, Watkins tried to convince Lamberth — a Ronald Reagan appointee — that his client should be released on bail before his trial. The 33-year-old Chansley is facing criminal charges that include violent entry, disorderly conduct and illegally entering restricted spaces.

During his 60 Minutes Plus appearance, Chansley tried to paint himself as a sympathetic figure. But Lamberth was not impressed and wanted to know why Chansley made that television appearance without his authorization. The judge asked Watkins, "Can you tell me how that came about?" and accused the attorney of using "subterfuge" to avoid jailhouse restrictions.

Lamberth did not grant the QAnon Shaman bail.

Watkins, at the hearing, told Lamberth, "It didn't occur to me that I wouldn't be able to capture the video image of my client in my office." And Watkins, in response to Lambert's allegation of "subterfuge," said, "It's just not my style."

Law & Crime reporter Adam KIasfeld notes that Watkins has been "depicting his client as a man inspired by Mahatma Gandhi, a believer in the principle of nonviolence toward all living beings called ahimsa — and a supposed shaman who allegedly would not crush a bug." But prosecutors have been stressing that the pole Chansley was carrying on Jan. 6 could have been used as a deadly weapon. And Chansley, according to court papers, left a threatening note for then-Vice President Mike Pence that described him as a "traitor" and read, "It's only a matter of time. Justice is coming."

The insurrectionists who stormed the U.S. Capitol Building on January 6 were trying to prevent Congress from certifying Joe Biden's Electoral College victory over then-President Donald Trump, who repeatedly made the false and debunked claim that the 2020 election was stolen from him through widespread voter fraud. As part of the defense, Klasfeld points out, Chansley has tried to paint himself as someone who was duped and misled by Trump.

The January 6 insurrectionists believed that Pence betrayed Trump by not doing more to prevent Biden's certification, and some of them were calling for his murder and chanting, "Hang Mike Pence."

Assistant U.S. Attorney Kimberly Louise Paschall, one of the federal prosecutors in Chansley's case, spoke by phone during the bail hearing and said, "We know how the defendant feels to this day about some of these issues because he has spoken to the press." And Chansley, Paschall said, obviously believes that the election was stolen from Trump "because he told 60 Minutes as much."