The Arizona man who emerged as the face of the January 6 insurrection has been sentenced to more than three years in prison.
Jacob Chansley achieved notoriety as the “QAnon Shaman” after images circulated in the media showing the 34-year-old in a horned hat and face paint while parading through the Senate.
Chansley, who has been in jail for about ten months, was not charged with carrying out any violence. Rather, he pleaded guilty to one count of obstructing an official proceeding, which is a felony, according to the Associated Press.
During a court appearance Wednesday, Chansley took responsibility for entering the Capitol building on January 6. “I have no excuse,” he said, according to the Associated Press. “No excuses whatsoever. My behavior is indefensible.”
US District Judge Royce Lamberth noted that Chansley seemed genuinely regretful, according to CNN. Nevertheless, the judge concluded that Chansley’s actions deserved a stiff punishment.
“What you did was terrible,” the judge told him, according to the Associated Press. “You made yourself the center of the riot.”
Luke Mullins is a senior writer at Washingtonian magazine focusing on the people and institutions that control the city’s levers of power. He has written about the Koch Brothers’ attempt to take over The Cato Institute, David Gregory’s ouster as moderator of NBC’s Meet the Press, the collapse of Washington’s Metro system, and the conflict that split apart the founders of Politico.
