The newly released footage of Jacob Chansley, the “QAnon Shaman” from the Capitol protest on Jan. 6, only shows four minutes of his time inside the Capitol, according to a new court filing.
The footage, released by Fox News host Tucker Carlson on Monday, does not include most of the evidence that is damaging to Chansley, according to the filing by prosecutors of Proud Boys member Dominic Pezzola, who was also sentenced for his involvement in the Capitol riot. Of the footage that Carlson has shown, the 10-page filing read, all of it took place between 2:56 p.m. and 3 p.m. on Jan. 6, even though Chansley had already breached a police line at 2:09 p.m. and then entered the Capitol.
PENCE SAYS ‘HISTORY WILL HOLD’ TRUMP ACCOUNTABLE FOR JAN. 6 IN GRIDIRON SPEECH
“With the exception of one CCTV camera (where said footage totaled approximately 10 seconds and implicated an evacuation route), all of the footage played on television was disclosed to defendant Pezzola (and defendant Chansley) by September 24, 2021,” the filing read. “The final 10 seconds of footage was produced in global discovery to all defense counsel on January 23, 2023.”
The release of Chansley’s footage to his attorney predated his sentencing, meaning that his plea deal that occurred prior to Sept. 24, 2021, could have possibly been revoked, according to Politico.
MORE: The government provided all but 10 seconds of this footage to Chansley’s attorney by Sept. 24, which post-dates his plead deal but pre-dates his sentencing (meaning plea could have been revoked, if it seemed material).
Here’s DOJ description of production: pic.twitter.com/aGlXNUNpla
— Kyle Cheney (@kyledcheney) March 12, 2023
One of the nation’s leading defense attorneys, Harvey Silverglate of Boston, had told the Washington Examiner that Carlson’s footage appearing to show U.S. Capitol Police escorting Chansley through the Capitol could be a foreshadowing of an appeal to vacate his guilty plea, which landed him 41 months in prison.
“Virtually every moment of his time inside the Capitol was caught on tape,” Carlson said on Monday. “The tapes show the Capitol Police never stopped Jacob Chansley. They helped him. They acted as his tour guides.”
The Department of Justice court filing heavily disputes Carlson’s characterization of events, noting while it’s “true that a sole officer” trying to deescalate the situation walked alongside Chansley, he was “not some passive, chaperoned observer of events for the roughly hour that he was unlawfully inside the Capitol.”
“But the televised footage fails to show that Chansley subsequently refused to be escorted out by this lone officer and instead left the Capitol only after additional officers arrived and forcibly escorted him out,” prosecutors wrote.
Chansley is serving the remainder of his prison sentence and is slated for release in July.
Chansley’s current attorney, Bill Shipley, told the Washington Examiner the DOJ’s filing “failed” to make a positive assertion that the video segments aired on Carlson’s show were among the videos disclosed to Chansley’s previous lawyer “at a time and in a manner that complied with the Government’s obligations” under the 1963 Supreme Court precedent established in Brady v. Maryland.
In Brady, the high court determined the government’s withholding of evidence that is key to determining either guilt or punishment of a criminal defendant violates the defendant’s constitutional due process rights.
“The Government’s filing today focuses heavily on its view of the facts with regard to what the videos show or do not show,” Shipley said. “But the issue for Mr. Chansley is whether his due process rights were properly afforded to him and not violated by the manner in which his case was handled.”
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Over the weekend, Twitter CEO Elon Musk posted on social media that Chansley should be freed from prison, citing footage of Chansley telling supporters of former President Donald Trump on Jan. 6 to “go home” and “obey our president.” Musk also cited another video on Saturday that featured Chansley claiming he stopped people from stealing items from the Capitol on Jan. 6, including someone “stealing muffins out of the break room.” Musk claimed, “This shaman/muffin-guardian is obviously not going to overthrow the state.”
House Republicans are planning to open multiple inquiries into the conduct of the Democratic-led Jan. 6 committee from the last Congress, as well as inquiries into the security failures that occurred during the Capitol riot and the treatment of rioters who were charged in the aftermath of the attack. Rep. Barry Loudermilk (R-GA) is expected to lead one of the inquiries in his position as chairman of the House Administration Committee’s subcommittee on oversight, according to CNN.
