DC rioter pleads guilty as Trump probe escalates
A US protester who styled himself as the Qanon Shaman has accepted a plea deal with prosecutors over his involvement in the US Capitol riots.
Jacob Anthony Chansley was one of thousands involved in January in scenes that left five people dead and nearly 140 injured after a mob supporting former president Donald Trump stormed the Capitol in an attempt to stop certification of Joe Biden’s election win.
Chansley pleaded guilty on Friday to a charge of obstruction in an official proceeding. Nearly 600 people have been charged in the federal investigation into the riot.
Meanwhile, Congressman Bennie Thompson, chairman of the House of Representatives’ select committee investigating the attack, is preparing an expanded inquiry into Trump which will look at whether the White House helped plan, or had advance knowledge of, the event.
Chansley, 33, became the face of the siege and was pictured in horns and bearskin headdress, with the American flag painted on his face. He told the FBI he went to DC “at the request of the president that all ‘patriots’ come to DC”.
Chansley’s attorney, Albert Watkins, told the court on Friday his client, who has been in custody for eight months, was “nonviolent, peaceful and possessed of genuine mental health issues”.
Chansley is due to be sentenced in November and could face up to 51 months in prison.
Supporters of riot defendants are reportedly planning a large demonstration in Washington DC later this month.
Meanwhile, the congressional inquiry committee that is scrutinising the riot will seek to establish whether the White House or Trump knew the January 6 disorder was planned.
Committee chair Congressman Bennie Thompson has demanded official communications referring to attacks on the Capitol sent on key dates beforehand as well as the day of the insurrection.
The expansion of the dragnet to include January 5 is seen as significant since it raised the spectre of the committee looking into what Trump and his top allies were doing the day before the attack.
Trump threatened last week to block the inquiry efforts, stating: “Executive privilege will be defended, not just on behalf of my administration and the patriots who worked beside me, but on behalf of the office of the president of the US and the future of our nation.”