The so-called QAnon Shaman, Jacob Chansley (the guy wearing the horned head dress and body paint on January 6th) has just been moved out of prison to a halfway house.
While I don’t condone extremist groups at all, I do (and will always) condone fairness under the law. Period. Full stop.
So, let’s replay what just happened:
- GOP takes back the House.
- Kevin McCarthy discovers the “January 6th Select Committee” and the DOJ withheld two-thirds of the ACTUAL January 6th footage. About another 27,000 hours’ worth. He releases it.
- Some of that hidden footage shows Mr. Chansley being peacefully escorted around the Capitol building by two armed Capitol Police officers. They were opening doors for him and taking him around the building. Escorted. True. I have now seen the footage myself. They weren’t under duress. They weren’t being held at gunpoint.
- Mr. Chansley’s sentence was supposed to continue for another 14 months. He has already spent 11 months in SOLITARY CONFINEMENT, to “ensure his safety” because of his notoriety. But after McCarthy released the videos that were suppressed, Mr. Chansley was suddenly removed and sent to a halfway house.
- The DOJ prosecutors knew of these tapes and deliberately did not make them available to the defense.
A direct quote from the defense: “The DOJ created and implemented a systemically flawed discovery production protocol for which there is simply no excuse,” he said. “The government had a duty to release material video footage, not just video footage that supported the government’s prosecutorial narrative.”
Do you really not understand why Republicans are angry over continued and mounting evidence of a two-tiered justice system? I don’t agree with what this guy represents, or even his actions that day – but when exculpatory evidence is there and withheld, what on earth can anyone make of that?
