Jacob Chansley, the January 6 spear-wielding rioter whose horny hat, topless chest and face make him one of the more recognizable figures in the Capitol attack, has been sentenced to 41 month in prison on Wednesday.
Chansley, who pleaded guilty to obstructing an official proceeding, was one of the first rioters to enter the building. He has admitted to using a bull to incite crowds, gave thanks in a prayer while in the Senate for the opportunity to weed out traitors and penned a letter threatening threatened Vice President Mike Pence saying, “It’s only a matter of time. Justice is coming!”
Although he was not charged with violence, prosecutors said Chansley, of Arizona, was “the public face of the Capitol riot” who attacked with a weapon, ignoring police orders. repeatedly to leave the building and gloat about his actions in the day immediately after the attack.
Before being sentenced, Chansley told US District Judge Royce Lamberth that he was wrong to enter the Capitol and that he took responsibility for his actions. He stressed he was not a fundamentalist and was having trouble with the way he was portrayed in news stories about the aftermath of the riots.
“I have no excuses,” said Chansley. “There are no excuses. My conduct is indisputable”.
The judge said Chansley’s remorse appeared to be genuine but noted the seriousness of his actions on Capitol Hill. “What you did was terrible,” Lamberth said. “You have made yourself the center of the riot.”
The image of Chansley holding a flagpole with the tip of a spear and looking as if he were howling is one of the most striking images to emerge after the riots. He previously called himself “QAnon Shaman” but later rejected the QAnon movement, which focused on the baseless belief that former President Donald Trump was battling a group of Satanists, cannibals child sex trafficker.
He was among 650 people charged in a riot that forced lawmakers to go into hiding while they were meeting to certify President Joe Biden’s victory in the Electoral College. More than 120 defendants pleaded guilty, most of them misdemeanors, to protesting at the Capitol, a maximum sentence of six months in prison.
Chansley and Scott Fairlamb, a New Jersey gym owner convicted last week of punching a police officer during the attack, received the longest prison sentences of the 38 Capitol riot defendants who were sentenced. punishment so far.
Chansley, who served 10 months in prison, seeks a term sentence. His attorney, Albert Watkins, said his client has long suffered from mental health problems that have worsened in solitary confinement due to COVID-19 protocol and is in dire need of help. mental health treatment.
In the year before the Capitol riots, Chansley appeared in costume at pro-Trump events, face mask protests and at a gathering of Trump supporters on Sunday. November 2020 outside an election office in downtown Phoenix, where votes from the presidential race are being counted.
His attorney has said Chansley was “horribly burned” by Trump and believed like other rioters that Trump called him to the Capitol, but then felt betrayed after Trump refused his favor. pardon him and others who joined the uprising.
Watkins said Chansley has been under pressure from family members to plead not guilty because they believe Trump will be reinstated as president and pardoned him.
After serving his first month in prison, Chansley said he has reassessed his life, regretting having barged into the building and apologizing for causing fear in others.
He stopped eating twice while in prison and lost 20 pounds (9 kg) by the time he was fed organic food.
The judge previously dismissed Chansley’s claim that the 6-foot-long flagpole he was carrying during the riot was not a weapon and that the metal spearhead was an ornament, saying the 6-inch-long spike had can be used to stab people from a distance. . —–
Billeaud reports from Phoenix.
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