WASHINGTON — The District Court for the District of Columbia released two new videos Tuesday appearing to show “QAnon Shaman” Jacob Chansley entering the Capitol Building as other members of the mob broke windows feet away.
The videos come after Chansley’s lawyer made another attempt to get his client released from jail – this time arguing that Chansley’s shamanic faith prevents him from getting the COVID-19 vaccine, and that the ongoing pandemic has made access to counsel difficult.
In one video, Chansley can be seen on top of scaffolding in his “unmistakable outfit,” as District Court Judge Royce C. Lamberth put it. In the second, Chansley can be seen entering through a door into the Capitol building as others bash in windows. While the video doesn’t show how the door was opened, there are no Capitol Police officers in sight – which appears to contradict claims by Chansley and his mother in a 60 Minutes interview that he was “escorted” into the building.
At one point during the second video, an unidentified person can be seen being escorted away from the area just a few yards from the mob that breached the Capitol.
Warning: The videos below contain explicit language. Viewer discretion is advised.
Lamberth said the videos show Chansley “blatantly lied” during his interview with 60 Minutes – and also that Chansley’s lawyer hasn’t had adequate access to his client.
“The issue, then, is not that defense counsel cannot confidentially communicate with his client,” Lamberth wrote. “The issue is that when defense counsel is able to speak with his client, he squanders the opportunity for private conversations, preferring instead to conduct a public interview. Such media appearances are undoubtedly conducive to defense counsel’s fame. But they are not at all conducive to the argument that the only way defense counsel could privately communicate with his client is if defendant were temporarily released. Given defense counsel’s decision to use what could have been a confidential videoconference on a media publicity stunt, that argument is so frivolous as to insult the court’s intelligence.”
Lamberth denied the motion to release Chansley last Monday. The videos were released Tuesday after the government issued no objection to their entrance into the public court record.