Jacob Chansley, branded the “Q Anon Shaman,” has reportedly been released from prison early after being sentenced to 41 months behind bars stemming from the U.S. Capitol riot on January 6, 2021.
Chansley, 35, was released from prison this week, the Daily Mail reported:
Earlier this week, Chansley was transferred from FCI Stafford federal prison in Arizona to community confinement in the Phoenix area, after serving just under 27 total months in prison, a Bureau of Prisons (BOP) spokesman confirmed in a statement to DailyMail.com on Thursday.
The spokesman declined to comment on the reason for the transfer, but pointed generally to federal laws that allow for good-conduct sentence reductions, as well as release to a halfway house for the final 12 months of a sentence.
Chansley’s lawyer Bill Shipley confirmed the release in a tweet, Fox 10 Phoenix reported.
His release comes weeks after Fox News Channel’s Tucker Carlson aired footage of the Capitol riot, which House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) provided to him and which had never before been seen publicly. In total, McCarthy gave Carlson some 40,000 hours of footage and later told Breitbart News Washington Bureau Chief Matthew Boyle that he would release all of the footage publicly.
As Breitbart News Senior Editor Joel Pollak noted:
In the case of Chansley, whose buffalo-horned costume became the iconic image of the Capitol riot, Carlson showed Capitol Police walking with him through hallways and even helping to open a door for him.
Chansley, who served in the U.S. Navy, ultimately pleaded guilty to the charges he faced and acknowledged that he was told repeatedly to leave the Capitol by police officers. He would later say in a jailhouse interview that he regretted not knowing that he was breaking the law, trusting that because police officers were helping him, his actions were condoned.
“Men of honor admit when they’re wrong,” Chansley told the court. “I was wrong for entering the Capitol. I had no excuse.”
“I’m not an insurrectionist. I’m certainly not a domestic terrorist,” Chansley said.
Editor’s Note: This story was updated to remove language suggesting that the Capitol Police unlocked doors for Chansley and that they were “guiding” him through the hallways.