A video recently surfaced showing Jacob Chansley, also known as the “QAnon Shamon,” calling for the crowd to disperse on January 6th. Chansley, who was recognized worldwide for wearing a buffalo headdress during the riots, grabbed a microphone and told the crowd that President Donald Trump had tweeted a call for protesters to halt their actions and vacate the Capitol.
Elon Musk made a splash on Twitter coming to Chansley’s defense. Musk wrote, “Free Jacob Chansley.” Musk has been very critical of those against releasing all of the January 6th footage.
WATCH:
Free Jacob Chansley https://t.co/8BbeXF2Fye
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) March 10, 2023
The video showed Chansley urging the crowd to obey the Trump’s request and to leave the Capitol. While the timing of the call to stand down cannot be determined in the video, it appeared that Chansley and the crowd had finished their march through the Capitol. Chansley reached a plea agreement with prosecutors for a reduced sentence and was punished in 2021 to nearly three and a half years in a minimum-security Arizona prison.
Chansley, later dubbed the “QAnon Shaman” in media reports, reached a plea agreement with prosecutors for a reduced sentence on one count of disrupting official proceedings in the Capitol building. He was sentenced in 2021 to nearly three and a half years at a minimum security Arizona prison and last year dropped an appeal to change his plea.
The events of J6 have been chronicled this week by Tucker Carlson, who has devoted his Fox News primetime show to airing previously unreleased footage of the riots. In one scene, Carlson argues that it appears Chansley was being guided through the building by Capitol police, a retelling at odds with Chansley’s plea agreement where he acknowledges that officers repeatedly asked him to leave the building.