O the power of those January 6 video scenes in the hands of Tucker Carlson and Fox News! Not long after Carlson aired the actual footage of the “raid on the capitol on January 6th, Jacob Chansley, better known as the QAnon Shaman, was released early from prison.
Chansley entered the Capitol wearing patriot-themed face paint and horns but no shirt. On Thursday, there was a report from the Bureau of Prisons that indicated he had been moved from federal prison to a halfway house in Phoenix, Arizona.
He pled guilty to civil disorder and violent entry to the Capitol in September of 2021. He and his attorney even signed a statement claiming that he entered the building through a broken door, that he “was not lawfully authorized to enter or remain in the building,” and that he “entered the Gallery of the Senate alone.”
But Republican Speaker of the House Kevin McCarthy recently released tens of thousands of hours of unedited footage of the events of January 6 to Fox News host Tucker Carlson. And Carlson aired a portion of that footage a few weeks ago. It contradicted the claim that Chansley violently entered the Capitol and that he entered the gallery alone.
It was the Capitol police who appeared to escort the unarmed Chansley throughout his time in the Capitol. When Chansley eventually entered the Gallery of the Senate, he prayed for the police who “allowed” them into “this building.”
Chansley has been released from federal prison after serving 27 months in prison, 11 of them in solitary confinement. His attorney, Albert S. Watkins, celebrated the decision to release Chansley, who had been sentenced to serve three and a half years behind bars.
“After serving eleven months in solitary prior to his sentence being imposed, and only 16 months of his sentence thereafter, it is appropriate this gentle and intelligent young man be permitted to move forward with the next stage of what undoubtedly will be a law abiding and enriching life,” Watkins said in a statement.
