overlord of twitter Elon Musk showed sympathy Friday for the Capitol Hill rioter dubbed the “QAnon Shaman,” in the billionaire’s latest effort to downplay the deadly events of January 6, 2021.
“Free Jacob Chansley,” Musk tweeted to his 130 million followers, apparently suggesting the rioter’s sentence was unwarranted.
Chansley had earned his nickname by storming the U.S. Capitol topless on Jan. 6 wearing a furry Viking-style hat and face paint, carrying an American flag tied to a spear.
For threatening and disrupting Congress as its members attempted to certify the results of the 2020 election, Chansley received 41 months in prisonor just under three and a half years.
He is one of 1,000 people arrested for his role in the attack on the Capitol and the law enforcement officers defending it. More than 300 people have been charged with physically assaulting or resisting officers or employees.
However, Musk has recently started promoting the misconception — urged by House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.), Fox News host Tucker Carlson and other conservatives — that the attack on the Capitol was actually a mostly peaceful event.
In a segment last week that was criticized by US Capitol Police Chief Tom Manger, among others, Carlson used selectively edited footage to make the gap look much tamer than it actually was.
Musk promoted the segment repeatedly on his Twitter page with gullible comments.
On Friday, Musk reacted to a video clip showing Chansley using a megaphone to read a tweet sent by former President Donald Trump around 3:15 p.m. on January 6.
“Uphold the law and our great men and women in blue,” Trump wrote, read by Chansley.
This, combined with other footage showing Chansley walking alongside police through the halls of the Capitol, seemed to absolve him in Musk’s mind.
“Chansley got 4 years in prison for a nonviolent tour escorted by police?” the CEO of Twitter and Tesla marveled. (The sentence was less than four years.) In another tweet, Musk claimed that Chansley “was falsely portrayed in the media as a violent criminal who tried to overthrow the state and who encouraged others to commit acts of violence.”
“I am not part of MAGA, but I do believe in fairness of justice,” he added.
Chansley pleaded guilty to civil disorder, disorderly conduct and disorderly conduct, breaking into a building and other charges at his November 2021 sentencing hearing. Prosecutors said he pushed through a police barrier to enter the Capitol Hill and proceeded to the Senate, where he yelled “Mike Pence is a fucking traitor” from the dais, and led other protesters in a chant against “all tyrants, communists and globalists.”
He also left a note: “It is only a matter of time. Justice is coming!”
