ST. LOUIS — On Donald Trump’s last day as president, he pardoned 143 people.
St. Louis attorney Al Watkins released a statement on his client, Jacob Chansley, not being pardoned.
Chansley also goes by the name Jake Angeli and has described himself as the "QAnon Shaman."
He was photographed inside the Capitol on Jan. 6 wearing a furry hat with horns, face paint and no shirt as part of the group of pro-Trump rioters who stormed the Capitol while lawmakers were trying to confirm the electoral college certifications of Democrat Joe Biden's presidential election win.
Chansley was charged in federal court with knowingly entering or remaining in any restricted building or grounds without lawful authority, and with violent entry and disorderly conduct on Capitol grounds.
Watkins previously said it would be "appropriate and honorable" for now former president Trump to pardon Chansley.
"Given the peaceful and compliant fashion in which Mr. Chansley comported himself, it would be appropriate and honorable for the president to pardon Mr. Chansley and other like-minded, peaceful individuals who accepted the president’s invitation with honorable intentions.”
“Unlike Lil Wayne, Image worthy Shaman, Jacob Chansley, did not receive a pardon from the exiting president despite his public request for same and despite overtures being made directly to the president through his chief of staff, Mark Meadows,” Watkins said in an email on Wednesday.
Chansley, 33, is currently being held in a federal facility in Phoenix, which is run by an independent contractor, according to Watkins. He’s being held in quarantine custody in accordance with COVID-19 mitigation protocols.
“The request was of extraordinary value in that it accorded Trump an opportunity to do what his followers believed would have been the ‘honorable’ thing to do,” said Watkins. “Mr. Chansley, along with many others who were similarly situated, are now compelled to reconcile a betrayal by a man whose back they felt they had for years. In turn, they are compelled to be introspective and evaluate how they got where they are, the role of their former leader in that tragic course, and the vulnerabilities they share such as to be led down a primrose path by a man whose back is now squarely fading into the Mar Lago sunset as he walks spiritually hand-in-hand with Lil Wayne,” Watkins said.
Watkins claims Chansley had no part in the violence.
Prosecutors say Chansley climbed up to the platform where Pence had been presiding moments earlier and wrote a threatening note.
It read: "It's only a matter of time, justice is coming."
