US Capitol rioter ‘QAnon Shaman’ sentenced to over three years in prison

Jacob Chansley, the former actor and US navy sailor better known as the QAnon Shaman, who was portrayed by a prosecutor as “the flag-bearer” of the January 6th attack on the Capitol in Washington, was sentenced on Wednesday to 41 months in prison.

Chansley (34) emerged as one of the riot’s most familiar figures, largely because of the outlandish costume he wore that day: a horned helmet, a fur pelt draped across his naked shoulders and a thick patina of red-white-and-blue face paint.

Images of him standing on the Senate floor hollering and brandishing a spear made from a flagpole shot around the world, a stark reminder of the role played in the assault by adherents of QAnon, the cult-like conspiracy theory embraced by some backers of former US president Donald Trump.

Chansley’s sentence, imposed by Judge Royce Lamberth of US district court in Washington, brought an end not only to one of the most widely publicised Capitol cases but also to one of the strangest. Not long after the attack, Chansley’s lawyer, Albert Watkins, announced that his client wanted Mr Trump to pardon him and later offered to have him testify at the former president’s second impeachment trial.

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In February, Mr Watkins persuaded a federal judge to order the jail in Virginia, where Chansley has been detained for most of his case, to serve a strict diet of organic meals. The next month, Chansley gave a widely watched interview to 60 Minutes, saying that his actions on January 6th were not an assault on the nation but rather a way to "bring God back into the Senate".

This circus-like atmosphere continued on Wednesday as scores of people attended a court hearing where Mr Watkins asked the judge to heal the country’s divisions by issuing a fair sentence. Mr Watkins told the judge that he could “mete out justice and emphasise common ground upon which all of us can somehow bridge this great divide”.

When Chansley addressed the court, he quoted Jesus, Gandhi and Justice Clarence Thomas. He went on to discuss his tattoos, his late grandfather’s role in his life and the prison movie The Shawshank Redemption. He also apologised for his role in attacking the Capitol, saying that in the days since, he has often looked into the mirror and told himself, “You really messed up, royally.”

More than 30 people have been sentenced in connection with the Capitol attack, most of whom have avoided prison time by pleading guilty to minor crimes like disorderly conduct or illegally parading in the building.

Last week, a former New Jersey gym owner was also given 41 months in prison for punching a police officer during the riot – the first of almost 200 riot cases of people charged with assault to reach the sentencing phase.

After Chansley’s lengthy speech to the court, the judge thanked him, saying the comments were among the most remarkable he had heard in 34 years on the bench. But the judge then told Chansley that he would still have to serve time in prison. “What you did is terrible,” he said.

– This article originally appeared in The New York Times