The man known as the “QAnon Shaman,” who served a 41-month prison sentence for taking part in the events of Jan. 6, 2021, at the Capitol building, thanked President Donald Trump for pardoning him and said he’s going to buy some guns.
“I JUST GOT THE NEWS FROM MY LAWYER…I GOT A PARDON BABY! THANK YOU PRESIDENT TRUMP!!!” Jacob Chansley wrote Monday in a post on X. “NOW I AM GONNA BUY SOME MOTHA (expletive) GUNS!!! I LOVE THIS COUNTRY!!! GOD BLESS AMERICA!!!!”
“J6ers are getting released & JUSTICE HAS COME ... EVERYTHING done in the dark WILL come to light!” he added.
Chansley, whose horned fur hat, bare chest and stars-and-stripes face paint made him one of the incident’s most recognizable figures, received one of the approximately 1,500 “full, complete and unconditional pardons” that Trump issued to nearly all the defendants charged in connection with the Capitol breach after being inaugurated on Monday.
In September 2021, Chansley pleaded guilty to one count of obstruction of an official proceeding as part of a plea deal that dismissed five other charges against him. He was sentenced to 41 months in prison but was sent to a halfway house about a year-and-a-half into his sentence. In May 2023, he was reportedly released from the halfway house.
In August, a federal judge in Washington, D.C., ordered the Justice Department to return Chansley’s property, including a spear-tipped flagpole and horned headdress, rejecting federal prosecutors’ claims that the items might still be needed as evidence.
"Since the government has not established that it still needs these items as evidence and has not sought their forfeiture, the Court will grant Mr. Chansley's motion," Judge Royce Lamberth ruled at the time, according to the New York Post.
"Mr. Chansley has completed his prison sentence and much of his term of supervised release," Lamberth wrote in his decision, according to the Post. "Now, he has moved for the return of his property seized and still held by the government, including his spear and helmet."
Nicole Weatherholtz ✉
Nicole Weatherholtz, a Newsmax general assignment reporter covers news, politics, and culture. She is a National Newspaper Association award-winning journalist.
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