‘QAnon Shaman’ sentenced to 41 months for Capitol coup d’etat

Jacob Chansley, whose brightly painted face, tattooed torso and horned cap became a visual icon of the Jan. 6 attempted coup d’etat at the U.S. Capitol, was sentenced Wednesday to 41 months in prison by a federal judge in Washington.

The defendant – wearing a Viking hat and carrying a six-foot spear – was among the first 30 terrorists in the building after then-President Donald Trump incited the mob with lies about the election being “stolen” as a result of unfounded fraud accusations.

Chansley, a.k.a. Jake Angeli, 34, of Phoenix, Arizona, was sentenced for his criminal conduct during the breach of the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, in which a mob of hundreds of terrorists attempted to stage a coup d’etat by disrupting a joint session of the U.S. Congress that was in the process of counting the electoral votes for the presidential election.

Attorney General Merrick Garland is under fire because he has not moved to indict Trump.

Chansley’s lawyer had asked the judge to impose a sentence of time already served, basically the entire 10 months since the insurrection, during which the terrorist attracted more attention for demanding an organic diet while in jail and giving an interview to “60 Minutes.”

The sentence of roughly 3 1/2 years is equal to the longest yet handed down to a Capitol rioter.

Of the roughly 130 people who have pleaded guilty so far, only 16 have admitted to felonies, and Chansley is the fourth felon to be sentenced.

The other three received terms of eight, 14 and last week a man who punched a Capitol police officer also received 41 months.

While 600 defendants have been charged with entering or remaining in a restricted federal building or grounds, none are accused of felony murder despite the five directly related deaths.

Only 65 individuals have been charged with using a deadly or dangerous weapon or causing serious bodily injury to an officer, although 140 police officers were assaulted Jan. 6 at the Capitol.

About 40 defendants have been charged with conspiracy, but none of those Proud Boys have significant links to Trump, who after months of promoting the lie that the election had been stolen, whipped the mob into a frenzy with more lies and then told them to assault the Capitol.

At the rally on the Ellipse, Trump used the word “fight” numerous times, as in “fight like hell,” insisted they would never “take back their country with weakness” and, in a clear invitation to violence, told them that when elections are stolen “very different rules apply.”

Early in his speech he told the crowd in passing to be “peaceful” and “patriotic,” but then devoted the next 50 minutes to inflaming them with statements such as, “if you don’t fight like hell you are not going to have a country anymore.” Trump repeatedly told the mob to go to the Capitol and said he would accompany them, although he didn’t.

Chansley, 34, was photographed parading shirtless through the halls of the Capitol with a six-foot spear, howling through a bullhorn and then sitting in the vice president’s chair in the Senate.

He became known as the “QAnon Shaman” because of his appearances at gatherings of the “QAnon” conspiracy theorists and his Shamanic religious beliefs.

Prosecutors quoted Chansley offering a prayer while sitting at the dais of the Senate, thanking God for “filling this chamber with patriots that love you … Thank you for allowing us to get rid of the communists, the globalists, and the traitors within our government.”