By Daily Mail (U.S.) | Created at 2025-01-24 19:56:37 | Updated at 2025-01-25 01:11:37
5 hours ago
After serving nearly two years behind bars and becoming one of the most infamous faces of the January 6 Capitol riots, Jacob Chansley – better known as the 'QAnon Shaman' – is now basking in the freedom of his pardon by President Trump.
'[The pardon] was a weight lifted. A very heavy, heavy weight lifted, because at any time, the government could come kicking my door in and say, you're under arrest', the 37-year-old told DailyMail.com in an exclusive interview in the wake of the decision.
'I don't count my chickens until they hatch. I trusted Donald Trump to do the right thing. He's a man of his word – promises made, promises kept.'
The order to pardon 1,500 people for their behavior during the January 6, 2021 attempt to prevent the certification of Joe Biden's 2020 election victory has proved one of the most controversial decisions of Trump's fledgling second term so far.
Along with Chansley, Proud Boys leader Enrique Tarrio and Oath Keepers founder Stewart Rhodes are among the beneficiaries as are others convicted of violently attacking Capitol police officers.
Chansley, who was not charged with violent behavior, inadvertently became the face of January 6 due to the famous photos that show him dressed in a Native American headdress, his face painted red and blue, inside the Senate.
He still has the headdress which was returned by federal authorities after his release and which he keeps safe because 'it's worth a lot of money and it has sentimental value. It was the day my life changed'.
Four years on and 27 months in prison later – 10 months of it in solitary due to his notoriety – Arizona native Chansley says he has no regrets over what happened that day or his subsequent imprisonment.
Jacob Chansley - better known as the 'QAnon Shaman' - shared his thoughts on his recent pardon, his time in prison, and his optimistic outlook on life as a result of the events on January 6, in an exclusive interview with DailyMail.com
Chansley inadvertently became the poster boy for the January 6 insurrection in 2021 due to the infamous photos of his Native American headdress, bare-chested getup and, red, white, and blue painted face
'Holding on to regret is like, it's like holding on to a fart. You just don't want to do it. You got to let it go, bro. And it doesn't matter.'
Chansley added: 'It is bad spiritual hygiene, don't hold on to regret, don't hold on to anger, don't hold on to resentment. Let all that stuff go.'
Nevertheless, despite offering a fulsome apology during his sentencing, he remains convinced he and others involved were over-prosecuted and never truly deserved the sentences handed out.
He told DailyMail.com that he believes violence of any sort should never go unpunished but said the rioters who did attack the cops had all served a significant amount of time by the time they were controversially pardoned.
'I don't believe that violence should go unpunished,' he told DailyMail.com. 'I do believe that those [people] did commit acts of violence, because in many cases it was so obvious – I mean, the government had video evidence.
'Most people pled guilty, and they had already served their sentence for three years.
'So, they served their time to a certain extent, and they served their time way more than the BLM and Antifa rioters did in 2020.
'Way more than any of these illegal immigrant rapists and murderers have in places like New York and LA.
Chansley was snapped holding a sign referencing QAnon while speaking into a microphone in Phoenix, Arizona, as supporters of President Donald Trump gathered to protest about the early results of the 2020 presidential election in November that year
Four years later, the staunch Trump supporter admits that while he did enter the Capitol building and was repeatedly photographed inside, he claims he was actually 'a force for peace'
President Donald Trump spoke at a rally protesting the electoral college certification of Joe Biden as president in Washington, January 6, 2021
'So, if we're going to have a talk about this idea of, oh, Trump pardoned the protesters that hit cops, then let's talk about arresting all the protesters from 2020 that weren't actually protesters.
'They were actually rioters who were burning down American cities for 200 days. Washington, D.C. was on fire. It was happening everywhere.'
He added: 'I believe that we were all over prosecuted and those people were under prosecuted. And that is the quintessence of the idea of a two-tier justice system.'
Chansley, a Navy veteran and longtime Trump supporter, said he traveled to DC on January 6 for 'reasons of a spiritual nature'.
What he did not expect was for events to unfold as they did – telling DailyMail.com: 'God's given me the ability to see the future on occasion, and there are ways in which this prescient vision has given me the opportunity to glimpse moments in space and time that most people couldn't see coming.
'That being said, never saw that s**t coming. You know what I'm saying?'
While he did enter the Capitol building and was repeatedly photographed inside, he says: 'if you look and watch my behavior on that day inside the building and outside, I actually was a force for peace.'
That wasn't enough to prevent him from being arrested by cops who said he had made his way on to the Senate floor where he climbed on the dais, took the seat of then Vice-President Mike Pence, refused to budge when ordered to and declared: 'Mike Pence is a f***ing traitor.'
Chansley, who was not charged with violent behavior, spent 27 months in prison – 10 months of it in solitary due to his notoriety. He had pleaded guilty to one count of obstruction of an official proceeding that September and was handed a 41-month prison term and a $2,000 fine
In his exclusive interview with DailyMail.com, Arizona native Chansley says he has no regrets over what happened that day or his subsequent imprisonment
Collared three days later on January 9, he pleaded guilty to one count of obstruction of an official proceeding that September and was handed a 41-month prison term and a $2,000 fine.
Chansley says he spent the first 10 months in prison at the Alexandria Detention Center in Virginia in solitary confinement, initially due to the Covid-19 pandemic 'and then they said it was for my own safety because I was high profile'.
Later, he was moved to Federal prisons in Oklahoma and Colorado before being released from FCI Safford in Arizona in March 2023 – 14 months earlier than scheduled.
During his time in prison, Chansley says he was falsely accused of making an escape attempt, which led to him being flown between prisons in a 'black box' where he was cuffed and unable to move.
'You guys have no idea what it's like to sit in solitary confinement and have the full weight of the government and the media coming down on you; having literally millions of people in your own country screaming for your head,' he told DailyMail.com.
'You have no idea what that's like. It's hard as f***. It was so f***ing hard.'
He likens the experience to that of Francis Scott Key who watched the bombardment of Fort McHenry from a Royal Navy ship during the American Revolutionary War.
Key then wrote a poem called 'Defense of Fort M'Henry' – the words later adapted to form the lyrics of The Star-Spangled Banner.
Chansley explained: 'For me, watching the Biden inauguration from my cell in solitary confinement after they threw the felonies on me, and they hung 25 years over my head, I had a very similar feeling to what Francis Scott Key felt.
'Our flag was still there when I got out and so I'm very moved every time I hear the Star-Spangled Banner. I mean, I was moved before, but now I'm very moved.
His time in general population also gave him food for thought.
'The way people reacted to me in federal prison was this curiosity and excitement,' he told DailyMail.com.
'It's not like the federal prisons are filled with people that love the federal government. They got people in there that saw me on TV and were charged up.
'Most prisons actually went on lockdown, actually, by the way, because of January 6. They didn't want riots to pop off at prisons. It's like, whoa, I never even thought about that.
'So, I've learned the far-reaching effects of my choices, and it's given me a bigger view, and I thought I had a big view before.'
Since his release, he has returned home to Phoenix and runs a website called Forbidden Academy where he offers online courses in subjects ranging from geo-politics to AI and aliens.
President Trump, who was sworn into office for this second term on Monday, pardoned Chansley along with more than 1,500 people charged with crimes related to the January 6, 2021 attack on the U.S. Capitol this week
Trump also pardoned Enrique Tarrio, the former leader of the Proud Boys, who was serving a 22-year sentence for seditious conspiracy. Tarrio is seen arriving at Miami International Airport after his pardon
Trump supporters were seen holding placards outside the DC Central Detention Facility, commonly known as the DC Jail, in anticipation of a pardon by U.S. President Donald Trump on Monday
He also made a brief foray into politics, filing a statement of interest in running for Congress on a Libertarian ticket before dropping out. It is not an experience he says he plans to repeat.
Now, with Donald Trump beginning his second term, Chansley says he is hoping to see Americans pull together and that 'we learn what we can agree on, not what we disagree on'.
Chansley – who eats an organic-only diet – is also enthusiastic about Robert Kennedy Jr. taking over at health and human resources and hopes he will push back on Big Pharma, as well as releasing internal files in the same way Elon Musk did when he took over Twitter and renamed it X.
To those opposing his pardon, his message is blunt: 'Look at the people that Joe Biden pardoned and then come and talk to me.'
And for Trump, there is an offer of help.
'Thank you. I love you, owe you one,' Chansley said in a message to the new president.
'And if you want any help investigating January 6, I'd be more than happy to do that for you.'
