File AP Photo By Manuel Balce: Jacob Chansley, with the Viking helmet, yells as he and other rioters are confronted by a Capitol Police officer. Chansley was sentenced to 41 months for his actions and is serving his time at FCI-Safford.
By Jon Johnson
SAFFORD – The “QAnon Shaman” Jacob Anthony Chansley, 34, has been transferred to Federal Correctional Institution-Safford to serve out the remainder of his 41-month sentence for his part in the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol riot. He has just more than two years left on his sentence.
While Chansley requested to be housed in prison in Arizona to be closer to his family, currently visitation is not allowed at the facility due to the increase of COVID-19 cases in the community.
Chansley plead guilty to one charge of obstructing an official proceeding in September and he was sentenced to 41 months in prison followed by three years on probation. He was also ordered to pay $2,000 in restitution, according to court records.
According to the Bureau of Prisons, FCI-SAFFORD is a low security federal correctional institution housing 809 male offenders.
Chansley has since appealed his own guilty admission and has replaced his attorney with John M. Pierce, who previously represented Kyle Rittenhouse in his November shooting during a protest in Kenosha, Wisconsin in 2020. Pierce was fired by Rittenhouse prior to his trial, however, he has represented numerous other clients regarding the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol riot.
Chansley has been seen at multiple protests in Phoenix prior to the Capitol riot and was a fervent believer in QAnon, an internet conspiracy theorist who demonizes Democrats and paints former President Donald Trump as the Savior.
During the Capitol riot, Chansley was easily identified by his appearance, adorned in a horned Viking hat, wearing face paint and no shirt that showed his various tattoos. It was an outfit he had previously been photographed in during events in Arizona. He was shown on video and pictures inside the Capitol, yelling and threatening. After his arrest, he was allowed to be given organic food in jail as part of his Shamanic belief system.
QAnon has repeatedly said Trump would be reinserted to the presidency numerous times that have passed without fruition, and recently some of the conspiracy followers now believe that John F. Kennedy Jr. did not die in a plane crash on July 16, 1999, but is alive and well and will run as a vice-president candidate with Trump on a Trump/Kennedy Jr. ticket.
Chansley has since denounced QAnon after his arrest and sentencing.
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