Jacob Chansley

Jacob Chansley entered the United States Capitol on January 6, 2021, reached the Senate chamber and took the presiding officer’s seat on the dais. Photographs of him there, shirtless and wearing a horned fur headdress and face paint, became among the most widely reproduced images of the day. He pleaded guilty in September 2021 to one felony count of obstructing an official proceeding, was sentenced to 41 months in prison, and was released in May 2023. He fell within the class of people pardoned by Proclamation 10887 in January 2025.

Before January 6, 2021

Chansley grew up in the greater Phoenix area, according to Associated Press reporting. His own sentencing memorandum states that he served in the U.S. Navy in 2006-2007 aboard the USS Kitty Hawk; that is the defense’s assertion in a court filing rather than an independently obtained service record.

The government’s sentencing memorandum describes his online presence in the period before January 6. It states that he had “accrued thousands of followers across several platforms, including Facebook, Rumble, Parler, and YouTube,” that he had thousands of Facebook followers and posted in dozens of Facebook groups, and that from November 2020 onwards he posted messages in those groups linking to videos he had put on YouTube and Rumble. The filing states that his Facebook account was disabled on January 7, 2021. These are the prosecution’s characterizations, offered to the court in support of its sentencing position.

January 6, 2021

The agreed statement of offense filed with his guilty plea sets out the following sequence, which he signed as true.

By 1:50 p.m. he was among the crowd at the police line on the West Front of the Capitol, dressed in a horned fur hat, shirtless, wearing red, white and blue face paint, and carrying an American flag tied to a pole with a sharp object at its tip, along with a bullhorn. He passed the police line, entered the inauguration scaffolding, and reached the Upper West Terrace at about 2:10 p.m. Other rioters broke two windows and forced open a door; he entered through that broken door at about 2:14 p.m., among the first thirty people inside the building. At about 2:20 p.m. members of the House and Senate, including Vice President Mike Pence presiding over the Senate, were instructed to evacuate, and the joint session was suspended until after 8:00 p.m.

He ascended to the second floor, where Capitol Police instructed the group to leave; the statement of offense says he used his bullhorn to demand that lawmakers be brought out. At about 2:52 p.m. he entered the Senate Gallery alone, then went down to the Senate floor. He scaled the dais and took the seat Vice President Pence had occupied less than an hour earlier, photographed himself there, and refused an officer’s instruction to vacate it, saying that “Mike Pence is a fucking traitor” and writing a note on paper on the dais reading “It’s Only A Matter of Time. Justice Is Coming!” He then called other rioters to the dais and led them in an incantation over the bullhorn. Officers cleared the chamber at about 3:09 p.m.

Prosecution, Plea and Sentence

Chansley was arrested on January 9, 2021 in the District of Arizona and remained in custody through sentencing. His own sentencing memorandum states that he went to the FBI’s Phoenix Field Office that day.

A grand jury indicted him on January 11, 2021 on six counts: civil disorder (18 U.S.C. § 231(a)(3)); obstruction of an official proceeding (18 U.S.C. § 1512(c)(2)); entering and remaining in a restricted building (18 U.S.C. § 1752(a)(1)); disorderly and disruptive conduct in a restricted building (18 U.S.C. § 1752(a)(2)); violent entry and disorderly conduct in a Capitol building (40 U.S.C. § 5104(e)(2)(A)); and parading, demonstrating or picketing in a Capitol building (40 U.S.C. § 5104(e)(2)(G)). He was arraigned on all six on January 29, 2021.

On September 3, 2021 he pleaded guilty before Judge Royce C. Lamberth to Count Two alone — obstruction of an official proceeding, a felony carrying a statutory maximum of twenty years. The court made a competency finding on the record before accepting the plea.

On November 17, 2021 the court sentenced him to 41 months’ imprisonment with credit for time served, 36 months of supervised release, a $100 special assessment and$2,000 in restitution, and recommended placement at FCI Phoenix so he would be near family. The remaining five counts were dismissed on the government’s motion. He filed a notice of appeal on November 30, 2021.

The Bureau of Prisons records an actual release date of May 25, 2023, with his last facility listed as the Phoenix Residential Reentry Management office. The Associated Press reported in November 2023 that he had served about 27 months before being transferred to a Phoenix halfway house in March 2023.

After Release

On November 9, 2023 a candidate statement of interest was filed with the Arizona Secretary of State’s office, signed “Jacob Angeli-Chansley,” indicating an intention to run as a Libertarian for Arizona’s 8th Congressional District seat in 2024. In the same report, the Associated Press wrote that although he had previously called himself the “QAnon Shaman,” he had since disavowed the QAnon movement.

Proclamation 10887, signed January 20, 2025, commuted the sentences of fourteen named individuals and granted “a full, complete and unconditional pardon to all other individuals convicted of offenses related to events that occurred at or near the United States Capitol on January 6, 2021.” Chansley is not among the fourteen named, and his conviction falls within the class described in section (b).

Why This Page Exists

The evidentiary record here is unusually complete for a January 6 participant: a signed statement of offense, a judgment, both sides’ sentencing memoranda, and a docket that records each step. It is one of the few cases where the path from a social-media presence to a specific documented act inside the Capitol can be traced through primary court filings rather than inference — the government’s sentencing memorandum names the platforms and the posting pattern, and the statement of offense fixes what happened minute by minute.

What Is Not Established Here

The birthYear: 1988 this page previously carried has been removed as unverifiable. Three records disagree: the Department of Justice gave his age as 34 on November 17, 2021 (implying a birth date between November 1986 and November 1987); the Associated Press gave it as 35 in mid-November 2023 (implying November 1987 to November 1988); and the Bureau of Prisons locator gives 39 as of September 1, 2026 (implying late 1986 to mid-1987). No primary record of his date of birth was located, and court filings redact it.

Also removed for want of a source: that he enlisted in September 2005, was processed out in October 2007, or held the rank of Storekeeper Seaman Apprentice — his own sentencing memorandum says only “2006-2007” aboard the USS Kitty Hawk; that he attended Moon Valley High School or Glendale Community College or studied psychology, religion, philosophy and ceramics; the Twitter/X handle “@AmericaShaman” and the twitter-x platform entry, which no source consulted supports (the government’s sentencing memorandum lists Facebook, Rumble, Parler and YouTube and does not mention Twitter); the followerCount field, which asserted a “significant social media following” with no figure and no source; the “Libertarian Party” affiliation, which the record supports only as the party named on a 2023 statement of interest, not as membership; the claim that he attended rallies “regularly” in 2019-2020 in a “distinctive costume,” which no source consulted establishes as a pattern; the claim that he did not submit petition signatures for the 2024 ballot; and the figure of “approximately 1,500 individuals pardoned,” which does not appear in the proclamation.

The page previously dated a gubernatorial announcement to 2025. Reporting in January 2026 says he told The Times of London that he intended to run for governor of Arizona as an independent. That interview is behind a paywall, azsos.gov and the Arizona candidate portal refuse automated clients, and no Arizona filing could be confirmed, so the claim is not carried on this page.

The prior “Digital Political Impact” and “Content Approach” lists — asserting that he demonstrated “the real-world manifestation of online conspiracy movement activity,” illustrated a “pathway from digital conspiracy communities to physical political action,” and “leveraged notoriety” — were interpretive claims in the project’s voice with no source, and were removed.

The disposition of the November 30, 2021 notice of appeal was not traced and is not stated here. His mental-health history, addressed at length in his sentencing memorandum, is not reproduced; the docket records that the court found him competent before accepting his plea.