The so-called “QAnon Shaman”, who invaded the United States Capitol last month in Viking costume, says he has not eaten for nine days because his shaman faith prevents him from eating non-organic food provided in prison.
And during an unintended fast that his lawyer says caused him to lose 10 pounds, the 33-year-old man was reflecting on his role in the January 6 uprising – and he has some regrets.
“He understood the fact that the ex-president didn’t really love him and that all the bullshit about the Trump army and all the conspiracy theories driven by social media led to much of the vulnerability,” Jacob Chansley’s defense attorney , Albert Watkins, told The Daily Beast on Wednesday.
“Has my client had an indiscriminate rejection of his previous beliefs? No. It is part of an ongoing process. But he recognized his role and my client blew up and realized that he needs to do the right thing for his country. As part of that process, he is compelled to address many things he believed in in the past, what I would call the propaganda machine ”.
Chansley of Phoenix, Arizona, was infamously photographed carrying a spear and a megaphone and wearing a headdress made of coyote skin and buffalo horns during the January 6 siege. He was arrested on January 9 and charged with civil disorder, obstruction of an official process, disorderly conduct in a restricted building and demonstration in a Capitol building.
But from his arrest and subsequent order to remain in prison until the trial, Chansley claims he did not eat. Why? Because his belief in shamanism means that food with unnatural chemicals “would act as an ‘object intrusion’ into your body and cause serious illness,” declared an emergency motion filed on Wednesday.
During a Wednesday hearing on the emergency motion, a DC Corrections Department official said they denied Chansley’s request, not because they doubted the sincerity of their shamanism, but because they found no evidence that an exclusively organic diet “be a principle of that religion.”
The department contested the fact that Chansley had not eaten in more than a week and said it did not identify his faith when he was first arrested.
Watkins said it was “a choice between starvation, death and consuming something contrary to your longstanding faith” – even offering to bring “a trusted shamanist advisor” to prove to the judge that the diet was spiritually necessary.
Judge Royce Lamberth ended up filling the order for organic food on Wednesday afternoon.
Watkins’ emergency motion argued that shamanism is a faith “recognized by the United States government” that “is often associated with indigenous tribal societies and involves the belief that shamans, with a connection to the other world, have the power to heal the sick, to communicate with spirits and escort the souls of the dead to the afterlife. ”
Chansley will not ingest “chemicals, preservatives and GMOs that would compromise the integrity of his faith,” said Watkins. “Just as an Orthodox Jew would not feast on canned ham while in prison.” (Prosecutors, however, noted in previous documents that Chansley regularly takes drugs like peyote and mushrooms – and lied about it to the authorities.)
The motion included a handwritten appeal from Chansley stating that, for eight years, he only ate “traditional God-made food”. “Running out of food is stressful because of the way it affects my serotonin levels,” Chansley wrote to prison officials. “I am humbly requesting some organic canned vegetables, canned tuna (wild caught) or organic canned soups.”
“I will continue to pray despite the pain and do my best not to complain. I simply ask you to understand that the physical effects of not eating organic products are harmful to my body and biochemistry, ”he added.
Watkins said he had a “duty to be aggressive and make sure his client didn’t die.” “I think my client is going to have to eat his left leg,” he told The Daily Beast ahead of Wednesday’s hearing.
Chansley’s lawyers called him a “non-violent” person who only entered the Capitol after the doors were kept open – “by a police officer who actually declared, if not literally, ‘the building is yours'”. He is a “gentleman who catches insects and releases them outside” and whose idol is Mahatma Gandhi, said Watkins.
But prosecutors say he was an important participant in the unrest and the “self-proclaimed leader” of QAnon, a violent conspiracy theory that believes Democratic Party pedophiles and cannibals will be arrested and executed.
Last month, US magistrate Judge Deborah Fine ordered Chansley to be detained before the trial, calling him an “active” participant in “a violent uprising” who would hardly follow court orders.
Chansley was among the handful of hooligans who invaded the Senate House during the insurrection, along with an Air Force veterinarian holding ties. Federal officials said Chansley admitted to leaving a chilling note for former Vice President Mike Pence, who he said was a “trafficker in child trafficking”.
“It’s just a matter of time, justice is coming,” the note said, although Chansley claimed to the FBI that he did not intend to be a threat.
In his motion, Watkins said Chansley was urged to invade the Capitol by Trump’s rhetoric and calls for action.
But since his arrest, Watkins told The Daily Beast, Chansley has apparently “gone through a period of introspection” and realized that he has become “open to ex-president propaganda”.
Watkins said that after Trump rejected a forgiveness request from Chansley and other Capitol mobsters, his client realized that “the president was not on his back”. Now, Chansley wants to do “what is right for his country,” even if it means testifying against Trump in his upcoming impeachment process.
Although Chansley still has a “soft space in his heart” for Trump, Watkins said his “well-spoken” client could be crucial in proving that Trump’s comments spurred the insurrection. “I’m not saying that senators have no choice but to put my client on the stand,” said the defense attorney. “I’m suggesting that if they take impeachment seriously, they need someone to testify – and who is better than someone who speaks well.”
And while his bizarre outfit – apparently inspired by his shamanic faith – has made him one of the most infamous participants in the rebellion, it can also represent an opportunity, said Watkins.
“He became the face of what happened on January 6,” he said. “Once we get to know Jacob and others like Jacob, January 6 will not be similar to 9/11 and Pearl Harbor. It will be a day of reckoning. We all need to assume our role. “