Background: Jacob Chansley at the U.S. Capitol, Jan. 6, 2021 (Saul Loeb/AFP Getty). Inset: Jacob Chansley, Feb. 4, 2021 (Alexandria (Va.) Detention Center).
The Jan. 6 rioter known as the "QAnon shaman" has made his plans clear in the wake of President Donald Trump's vast grant of clemency to those convicted in connection with the insurrection: he's going to buy guns.
Jacob Chansley, who was memorably photographed wearing a fur-lined helmet and carrying a spear in multiple locations inside the Capitol on Jan. 6, announced his upcoming shopping spree on X on Monday evening, shortly after Trump included him in the mass pardon of around 1,500 convicted rioters in the flurry of executive orders he issued in the hours after taking office.
The post reads:
I JUST GOT THE NEWS FROM MY LAWYER …I GOT A PARDON BABY!THANK YOU PRESIDENT TRUMP!!!NOW I AM GONNA BUY SOME MOTHA FU*KIN GUNS!!!I LOVE THIS COUNTRY!!!GOD BLESS AMERICA!!!!J6ers are getting released & JUSTICE HAS COME …EVERYTHING done in the dark WILL come to light!
As Law&Crime previously reported, Chansley pleaded guilty in September 2021 to obstructing a federal proceeding — a charge that the Supreme Court later deemed as inapplicable to accused Jan. 6 rioters. His defiant post on Monday is a stark departure from what he said during his November 2021 sentencing hearing.
"I was wrong for entering the Capitol," Chansley told Senior U.S. District Judge Royce Lamberth. "I have no excuse, no excuse whatsoever," he added, calling his behavior "indefensible." He insisted, however, that he was "not an insurrectionist," and that he was "certainly not a domestic terrorist," but rather a "good man who broke the law."
At that same sentencing hearing, Lamberth chastised Chansley's actions while also praising his speechmaking, likening the Arizona man's remarks to something that might have been said by Martin Luther King — and then ordered him to serve 41 months behind bars. Chansley was ultimately released in May 2023.
Trump had previously forecast his mass grant of clemency, insisting that he would "very quickly" issue pardons. Although he had signaled that he would look into each case individually in order to separate the "radical" and "crazy" rioters from those who, in his words, "had no choice" — a sentiment echoed by JD Vance, who said that violent rioters "obviously" shouldn't be pardoned — Trump ultimately took a broad-brush approach, granting a "full, complete and unconditional pardon" to the vast majority of convicted rioters.
According to the Justice Department, a pardon "is an expression of the President's forgiveness" and is normally granted "in recognition of the applicant's acceptance of responsibility for the crime and established good conduct" for a "significant period of time" after conviction or after a sentence is served.
"It does not signify innocence," the DOJ notes. A pardon will, however, remove "civil disabilities" such as restrictions on the right to vote, hold local or state office, or sit on a jury.
Although all Jan. 6 rioters received clemency from the newly-inaugurated president, not all of them received a pardon. Some received a commutation of sentence, which the DOJ says "reduces a sentence, either totally or partially, that is then being served, but it does not change the fact of conviction, imply innocence, or remove civil disabilities that apply to the convicted person as a result of the criminal conviction."
Jan. 6 rioters who were given a commutation include Oath Keepers leader Stewart Rhodes, who was convicted in November 2022 of seditious conspiracy and ordered to serve 18 years behind bars, and co-defendants Kelly Meggs, Dominic Pezzola and Thomas Caldwell. According to prosecutors, Rhodes and members of the Oath Keepers — including Meggs, the Oath Keepers Florida chapter leader; Caldwell, a retired Navy lieutenant commander; and Harrelson, a member from Florida — had stockpiled a cache of weapons in a hotel room in Arlington, Virginia, and tried to procure a boat to ferry them across the Potomac River to the Capitol on Jan. 6.
To be sure, Chansley isn't the only Jan. 6 rioter publicly celebrating after Trump issued the pardons: former Army captain and Proud Boys member Gabriel Garcia, who was captured on video taunting then-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi — whose staff was forced to hide and shelter in place for several harrowing hours during the violent breach — to "come out and play" as he roamed the Capitol building, reportedly cut off his GPS monitor.
But at least one former Trump supporter who was ordered to prison for participating in the Jan. 6 Capitol attack has vocally rejected the president's declaration of clemency.
"I pleaded guilty because I was guilty," Pamela Hemphill told CNN after the pardons were announced.
"This is a sad day," she added. "The ramifications of this is going to be horrifying."