Prosecutors: QAnon Shaman, others meant to capture and assassinate


  • Justice Department prosecutors said people who participated in the pro-Trump attack of the US Capitol planned to “capture and assassinate elected officials.”
  • They made the assessment in a detention memo for Jacob Chansley, also known as the QAnon Shaman or Jake Angeli, who they say left a threat for Vice President Mike Pence.
  • The top prosecutor overseeing the Capitol insurrection cases, however, said a day later there was no “direct evidence” about assassination plans.
  • Chansley evaded Capitol police and went to the dais where Pence stood, leaving a note that said “it’s only a matter of time, justice is coming,” according to court documents.
  • He later told FBI agents that Pence was “a child-trafficking traitor” and that he planned to return to Washington, DC, for President-elect Joe Biden’s inauguration.
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Some of the people who participated in the pro-Trump attack of the US Capitol intended to “capture and assassinate elected officials” including Vice President Mike Pence, according to federal prosecutors.

Department of Justice prosecutors made the assessment in a detention memo for the QAnon Shaman, who goes by Jake Angeli but whose real name is Jacob Anthony Chansley. The court filings were reviewed by Insider and first reported by Reuters.

Michael Sherwin, the top prosecutor overseeing Capitol riot cases, tried to walk back the claim Friday. In a press conference, he said “the justice department didn’t have “any direct evidence of kill capture teams.”

Prosecutors in Chansley’s case said he should be held in jail while awaiting trial, arguing that his erratic behavior made him a flight risk and his massive following in the QAnon community allowed him to quickly raise enough money to flee.

Chansley is one of its most visible followers of the false QAnon conspiracy theory, which holds that President Donald Trump is fighting a “deep state” of cannibalistic, pedophilic devil-worshippers. He stormed the Capitol while shirtless and wearing large horns, fur pelts, and war paint, carrying a 6-foot-long spear.

The insurrectionists, at the urging of President Donald Trump, tried to stop Congress from counting the…

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