Jacob Chansley made quite an impression on millions of television viewers, who watched insurrectionists attack police officers and storm the U.S. Capitol to overturn the election of Joe Biden as president on January 6, 2021.
The insurrection was a gruesome, horrible sight, never before experienced in the 230 or so years that America has been a country.
Millions of Americans saw Jacob Chansley inside the U.S. Capitol, bare-chested with a headdress made of animal fur and horns, wearing facepaint, holding a spear, and shouting into a bull horn.
The image brought Americans together as they collectively yelled,
“WTF!”
Jacob Anthony Angeli Chansley has used a number of nicknames, including Jacob Chansley, Jake Angeli, QAnon Shaman, Q Shaman, and Yellowstone Wolf. But, in that moment and for many other moments that followed, many others had their own name for Chansley:
“What a doucebag!”
“Who is that jackass?”
Chansley was one of the first rioters arrested in the weeks and months after the insurrection – in part because he was one of the easiest to recognize.
It’s not often you see a guy in facepaint and a headdress and horns in the checkout line of a grocery store.
According to the Justice Department, Chansley was among the first 30 rioters to breach the Capitol. Inside the Capitol, he took selfies on the floor of the Senate and sat in the chair that Vice President Mike Pence had occupied an hour earlier to oversee the certification of the election, the Justice Department said.
When a police officer asked him to leave, Chansley refused. He called Pence a “traitor.”
Chansley left a note for Pence that said, “It’s Only A Matter of Time. Justice Is Coming!”
The Washington Post reported that Chansley was inside the Capitol for more than an hour and then drove back to his home in Phoenix, telling a NBC News affiliate that members of Congress were “traitors” and that he and other rioters had won the day by forcing those in Congress to run for safety.
“The fact that we had a bunch of our traitors in office hunker down, put on their gas masks and retreat into their underground bunker,” he said. “I consider that a win.”
Chansley then learned the FBI was looking for him. He called a bureau office and told them he was glad he sat in Pence’s chair. He called Pence “a child-trafficking traitor.”
One Arizona media outlet reported that Chansley was “a fixture at Arizona right-wing political rallies.”
He became known as “QAnon Shaman” because of his Shamanic beliefs and because he spread “QAnon” conspiracy theories such as Democrats (and apparently Mike Pence) were involved in child-trafficking rings.
He was arrested three days after the insurrection and charged with “knowingly entering or remaining in any restricted building or grounds without lawful authority, and with violent entry and disorderly conduct on Capitol grounds.”
Judge Royce Lamberth ordered that Chansley be held in jail until his trial.
Before January 6, Chansley “posted vitriolic messages on social media, encouraging his thousands of followers to expose corrupt politicians, to ID the traitors in the government, to halt their agenda, to stop the steal, and end the deep state,” the prosecuting attorney told the court. “That was a call to battle.”
After his arrest, Chansley asked then-President Donald Trump for a pardon.
In September, Chansley pleaded to a felony charge of obstructing Congress’ certification of the 2020 vote.
Chansley, 35, was convicted of obstruction of an official proceeding in November 2021. Lamberth then sentenced him to 41 months in prison.
“He made himself the image of the riot, didn’t he?” Judge Lamberth said. “For good or bad, he made himself the very image of this whole event.”
Chansley’s lawyer, Albert S. Watkins, explained that his client’s actions were due in part to mental health issues.
“Mr. Chansley is in dire need of mental health treatment,” Watkins wrote in his sentencing memo.
Watson said that a psychological evaluation found that Chansley suffered from schizotypal personality disorder, anxiety, and depression.
Chansley also expressed remorse about the actions he took against the government.
In his speech to the judge, Chansley invoked the names of Jesus Christ and Gandhi.
“Gandhi would allow his loyalty to God and truth to guide him to accepting responsibility,” he said. “I was wrong for entering the Capitol. I have no excuse. No excuse whatsoever. My behavior was indefensible.”
Chansley was released on good behavior in March 2023.
Tucker Carlson of Fox News falsely claimed credit for the early release of Chansley by saying his release was the result of tapes aired on Fox that proved the man’s innocence.
https://www.reuters.com/article/factcheck-shaman-released-idUSL1N36929Y
Carlson’s claim was challenged by media organizations and fact organizations, Albert Watkins, and the Federal Bureau of Prisons.
Watkins said that Chansley’s release is “a function of his plea agreement, the sentencing order, his participation in programs during his term of imprisonment, his model behavior, his unique characteristics and other nuances protocols followed by and in place with the U.S. Bureau of Prisons.
FactCheck.Org also challenged the truth of Carlson’s report.
“Jacob Chansley, also known as the ‘QAnon Shaman,’ was sentenced to 41 months in prison for participating in the Jan. 6, 2021, riot at the U.S. Capitol, but he was released early to a halfway house on March 28 because of his plea agreement and prison protocols. Social media posts falsely claim that his release was due to videos shown by Fox News commentator Tucker Carlson.”
