A federal judge denied “QAnon Shaman” Jacob Chansley’s motion to vacate his January 6 conviction after withheld security footage showed Capitol Police officers appearing to escort him throughout the building.
Prosecutors charged Chansley with multiple crimes, including civil disorder, obstruction of an official proceeding, and entering and remaining in a restricted building. Chansley pleaded guilty to one felony of obstructing an official proceeding and was sentenced to 41 months in prison in November 2021.
After serving 27 months for his involvement in the Capitol riot, the self-proclaimed “evolutionary” had his sentence cut short amid the security footage in question aired by ex-Fox News host Tucker Carlson.
Attorney William Shipley, who is representing the former January 6 prisoner, submitted a bid for the court to withdraw and dismiss the case, saying the footage “would have been favorable to Mr. Chansley at sentencing,” according to POLITICO.
“Our main goal was to simply force the government to explain why video evidence was not timely produced during a period defendants like Jake were being detained in custody,” he said. “We still believe the government has not provided a sufficient justification in that regard.”
But U.S. District Judge Royce Lamberth denied the motion in a 35-page opinion, saying Chansley’s claims “are without merit.”
“In fact, without Mr. Chansley’s apparently unequivocal acceptance of responsibility, the Court is confident that he would have received a higher sentence,” Lamberth wrote.
“In sum, Mr. Chansley cannot demonstrate that either the absence of certain terms in the plea agreement or the presence of the CCTV footage at sentencing would have resulted in even a ‘conceivable[] likelihood of a different result,’ much less a ‘substantial’ one,” he added. “Therefore, he has not established prejudice.”
Lamberth also criticized the Capitol security footage aired on Carlson’s “ill-advised” program that day, which he said was “replete with misstatements and misrepresentations” about the events on January 6.
“The Court finds it alarming that the host’s viewers throughout the nation so readily heeded his command,” he continued. “But this Court cannot and will not reject the evidence before it.”
Carlson released the footage after House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) gave the former primetime Fox News host exclusive access to 40,000 hours of video from that day.
“Virtually every moment of his time inside the Capitol was caught on tape,” Carlson said during the segment. “The tapes show the Capitol police never stopped Jacob Chansley. They helped him. They acted as his tour guides.”
“Not one of them even tried to slow him down,” Carlson continued before suggesting that Chansley “understood that the Capitol police were his allies.”
Chansley initially issued an apology after he pleaded guilty to his involvement at the Capitol more than two years ago. After being released from prison early, he recently told the BBC he regrets the plea.
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