Last week, Chansley filed for organic food, which he said was all he had eaten in the past eight years, according to court documents. He said the last time he ate was on the morning of January 25 and ordered some canned vegetables, canned wild tuna or organic canned soup.
“I will continue to pray despite the pain and do my best not to complain,” wrote Chansley in the request. “I have deviated from my spiritual diet only a few times in the past 8 years, with harmful physical effects. As a spiritual man, I am willing to suffer for my beliefs, to cling to my convictions and the weight of their consequences ”.
Eric Glover, general counsel for the Washington, DC Department of Corrections, contested that Chansley had not eaten in a Tuesday email to Watkins filed in court documents.
At a hearing on Friday, a judge asked Chansley’s lawyer to try to resolve problems related to his diet with Glover. Chansley’s request for organic food was denied on Monday, according to the documents, which said his claims had “no religious merit”.
In the lawsuit on Wednesday, Watkins asked Chansley to be released before his trial, saying he had no criminal record, was not “part of a big scheme to … bring down the government” and that that would remove any problems with the Chansley’s “worsening health situation”. Watkins wrote on Wednesday that Chansley also obeys the FBI. The judge in the case said he would be open to considering bail for him in early March.
The Phoenix man was one of the first people indicted by federal prosecutors after the Capitol insurrection that left five dead. Chansley, also known as Jake Angeli, was accused of violating Federal Anti-Riot Law and obstructing Congress, among other charges. Former President Donald Trump was later accused of inciting an insurrection. Chansley would also be willing to testify at Trump’s Senate trial next week, Watkins said earlier.
Prosecutors argued that Chansley was “an active participant” in the “violent uprising”, suggesting that charges of sedition or insurrection could be ongoing for those involved.
The horns and skins that Chansley wore on January 6, which made him one of the most well-known faces in the riots, were part of his “shaman beliefs,” Watkins wrote in the filing on Wednesday.
Watkins also argued in his Wednesday filing that Trump incited the riot by saying “‘if you don’t fight like hell, you won’t have a country anymore” at a rally before the riot. In an interview with CNN after the disturbances, Watkins said Chansley “felt like he was responding” to Trump’s call and asked Trump to forgive him.
“He felt his voice was being heard for the first time,” said Watkins of Chansley. “And what ended up happening, in the run-up to the election, over the election period until January 6 – it was the driving force of a man he hung his hat on, he hitched the wagon to. He loved Trump. Every word, he hears it. “