‘Qanon Shaman’ appealing result of his own guilty plea
The “Qanon Shaman” who walked into the U.S. Senate chamber in January in a coyote-skin headdress and pleaded guilty in September to obstructing an official proceeding is now appealing.
Jacob Chansley, who was sentenced this month to more than three years in prison for his role in the Jan. 6 Capitol riot, filed a notice of appeal Tuesday “from the judgment and sentence” of the court.
John Pierce, Chansley’s new lawyer in the case, filed the notice in federal court in Washington, D.C., where his client was convicted, and is appealing to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit. The two-page notice will be followed by a memo laying out his arguments. Pierce replaced attorney Albert Watkins on the case Monday at Chansley’s request.
Chansley, 34 at the time of the sentencing, went viral on social media as an emblem of the insurrection when he was caught on video bare-chested carrying an American flag through the Capitol. He was a standard-bearer for Donald Trump, whom the rioters breached the building to keep in the presidency after he lost to Joe Biden last November.
Roaming the interior in his horned headpiece, Chansley left a handwritten note on a dais that Mike Pence, then the vice president, had vacated amid the riot. Pence had declined to use his office to overturn the election results, drawing the ire of the insurrectionists.
“It’s only a matter of time,” the note read. “Justice is coming!”
The case is U.S. v. Chansley, 21-cr-00003, U.S. District Court, District of Columbia (Washington).