‘QAnon Shaman’ says he’s willing to testify in impeachment trial
Trump’s second impeachment trial has a witness ready to take the stand: organic food-eating insurrectionist Jacob Chansley.
Jacob Chansley, the fur-clad, face-painted supporter of former President Donald Trump photographed inside the Capitol Building during the deadly Jan. 6 insurrection, has declared that he feels “betrayed” by the ex-commander-in-chief.
Chansley, who is known in some circles as the QAnon Shaman, has made it clear — via his attorney — that he is willing to testify at Trump’s second impeachment trial.
Albert Watkins, who represents Chansley, said his client was once “horrendously smitten” by Trump but feels like the president let him and others down by not granting the Capitol insurrectionists a pardon before leaving office on Jan. 20.
Chansley is expected to be arraigned in a Washington D.C. courtroom today on charges of civil disorder, obstruction of an official proceeding, disorderly conduct in a restricted building, demonstrating in a Capitol building and other counts. He faces decades in prison if convicted.
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“My client had heard the oft-repeated words of President Trump,” Watkins said weeks after the seige. “The words and invitation of a president are supposed to mean something. Given the peaceful and compliant fashion in which Mr. Chansley comported himself, it would be appropriate and honorable for the president to pardon Mr. Chansley and other like-minded, peaceful individuals who accepted the president’s invitation with honorable intentions.”
His client also made news for attempting to stage a hunger strike while being held in federal detention as he demanded to be fed an organic diet. A judge granted the request.
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Several people arrested after the riot, which left five people dead, have explicitly said that they were following the orders of the former president.
Jenna Ryan, the Texas real estate agent who flew to D.C. in a private plane, told a news outlet in her native Dallas that she “was basically following my president. I was following what we were called to do. He asked us to fly there. He asked us to be there.”
The Senate trial of the historic second impeachment of Donald Trump is scheduled to begin on Monday, Feb. 8.
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