There is an image that will live in perpetuity from the attempted insurrection of January 6th, 2021, and that is of the fearless QAnon Shaman, face painted red, white, and blue, charging through the halls of Congress shirtless, with an American flag attached to a spear.
Oh, and who could forget his horns? The young man and aspiring actor arrived at the Capitol wearing a massive fur headdress, complete with bison horns.
And while his appearance may have been considered a bit laughable at the time, he certainly isn’t chuckling at the moment.
Prosecutors want to make an example out of the most recognizable Capitol rioter—Jacob Chansley, aka the “QAnon Shaman.” Chansley, who was seen storming the Senate chamber on Jan. 6 shirtless and wearing a horned headdress, pleaded guilty in September to a felony charge of obstructing an official proceeding. In a sentencing memo filed late Tuesday, prosecutors asked for a sentence of 51 months, which is at the upper end of sentencing guidelines, CNN reports. “Defendant Chansley’s now-famous criminal acts have made him the public face of the Capitol riot,” prosecutors wrote, calling him “quite literally” the flagbearer of the mob. Chansley left a threatening note for Mike Pence, but he is not accused of assaulting anybody.
But then:
Prosecutors said Chansley was among the first 30 rioters to enter the Capitol. The invasion “made us all question the safety and security of the country in which we live,” prosecutors wrote, arguing that such acts “must be deterred so that we never see a similar assault on our democracy again.” They noted that weeks before the riot, Chansley spread disinformation online, telling his thousands of followers on Facebook that it was time to “hang the traitors lurking among us.” Chansley, who has already been in jail for 10 months, is only the third felony Capitol defendant to reach the sentencing phase after pleading guilty, Politico reports. He will be sentenced next Wednesday.
There has been a bit of a trend in these sentencing procedures of late, with judges regularly handing down harsher penalties than prosecutors have ever asked for.
It would not be surprising for Chansley to face some exorbitant and arbitrary sentence in the case.
