Marjorie Taylor Greene credits Kevin McCarthy for QAnon Shaman’s prison release
Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) heaped praise on House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) on Thursday, claiming he played a key role in securing the release of a man convicted in connection with the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol.
Jacob Chansley, 35 of Phoenix, was sentenced to 41 months in prison after he pleaded guilty to one felony count of obstructing an official proceeding.
Chansley, who also goes by “Jacob Angeli,” became known as the “QAnon Shaman” after he was seen wearing a helmet with a fur hat and his face painted during the insurrection in photos and video shared widely.
Chansley was moved from a Safford, Arizona federal prison to a Phoenix “residential reentry management” facility CBS News reports. His scheduled release date is May 25.
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McCarthy’s release of a trove of video from the insurrection to Fox News host Tucker Carlson was a key factor in Chansley’s release, according to Greene.
“All the credit goes to @SpeakerMcCarthy for releasing the video tapes and @TuckerCarlson for his great work exposing the lies of the politically corrupt Democrats and the January 6th Committee,” Greene tweeted.
But according to Chansley's attorney, "Jake is out on schedule."
"I told him 16 months ago in our first conversation it would be Feb. or Mar. 2023," Chansley's attorney Bill Shipley tweeted on Thursday morning. "BOP [Federal Bureau of Prisons] math. I didn’t do anything extraordinary–this was always the schedule, I just understood it and could explain it to him."
Chansley is among at least 1,000 people who had been charged in connection with the insurrection as of March 25, NPR reports.
Many of those charged in connection with the attack have been revered by Greene and former President Donald Trump, among others.
Greene on Friday led a congressional delegation visiting jailed Jan. 6 defendants held at a Washington D.C. jail, and the far-right congresswoman from Georgia told reporters afterward that she considered the defendants “political prisoners.”
“Jacob Chansley is free,” Greene tweeted Thursday.
“A J6 political prisoner persecuted for walking in the Capital escorted by police. He prayed for them and encouraged everyone to be peaceful. I hope he sues everyone that assassinated his character and lied about him.”
\u201cJacob Chansley is free.\n\nA J6 political prisoner persecuted for walking in the Capital escorted by police. He prayed for them and encouraged everyone to be peaceful.\n\nI hope he sues everyone that assassinated his character and lied about him.\u201d— Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene\ud83c\uddfa\ud83c\uddf8 (@Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene\ud83c\uddfa\ud83c\uddf8) 1680190851