The ‘QAnon Shaman’ Jacob Chansley, the man made famous for storming the US Capitol with a bull horn helmet during the Jan. 6th attack, has been sentenced to 41 months in prison for his role in the riots after he pleaded guilty to obstruction of an official government proceeding.
The Justice Department was pushing for Chansley to receive a harsh sentence, calling for the maximum sentence of 51 months as a way to set an example among the January 6 rioters, while the defense, citing a variety of extenuating circumstances, asked that he’d be granted significant downward departure from the 41-month minimum.
The US District of Columbia Judge Royce Lamberth ultimately handed him down the 41-month sentence, but Chansley will get credit for the time he has already served, he will also have to pay $2,000 for damage done to the Capitol building during the riot, and he’ll serve three years of probation at the end of his prison term.
Since Chansley is one of the first felony defendants among more than 660 Capitol riot cases to face trial, other judges might look to Judge Lamberth’s sentence as a possible benchmark. He also had Chansley held in jail since his arrest, despite his multiple attempts to gain sympathy and his release.
Chansley, who became a poster boy for the riot after wild photos of him were widely circulated, was intially indicted on six counts, including civil disorder and parading, demonstrating, or picketing in the Capitol building” after he turned himself in to the police on Jan. 9 but the other charges against him were dropped as part of his plea agreement in September.
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