Twitter CEO Elon Musk has called for the release of Jacob Chansley, the “Qanon Shaman” who was sentenced to prison following entering the Capitol building on Jan. 6, 2021.
Newly released footage of the Capitol riot showed Chansley telling supporters of former President Donald Trump to “go home” and “obey our president.” Musk, retweeting the video posted on Twitter, wrote “free Jacob Chansley” on Friday evening.
MUSKVILLE: ELON MUSK PLANNING TO BUILD HIS OWN TOWN IN TEXAS
“I’m not part of MAGA, but I do believe in fairness of justice,” Musk wrote when someone replied to his post claiming he was a part of the MAGA movement. “Chansley was falsely portrayed in the media as a violent criminal who tried to overthrow the state and who urged others to commit violence. But here he is urging people to be peaceful and go home.”
I’m not part of MAGA, but I do believe in fairness of justice.
Chansley was falsely portrayed in the media as a violent criminal who tried to overthrow the state and who urged others to commit violence.
But here he is urging people to be peaceful and go home. And the other… https://t.co/XU8vISJaNy
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) March 11, 2023
Musk added that other footage of the Capitol riot showed Chansley “calmly walking in the Capitol building” while being escorted by Capitol officers.
On Saturday, Musk responded to another video featuring Chansley, this one being an interview Chansley recently did with CBS in which he claimed he stopped people from stealing items from the Capitol, including someone “stealing muffins out of the break room.” Chansley added that the one “very serious regret” was not being allowed in the Capitol, saying he believed when he and others were waved in by officers “that it was acceptable.”
Musk responded to the interview by saying, “let him out,” adding that “this shaman/muffin-guardian is obviously not going to overthrow the state.” Musk also joked that “we finally know the muffin man.”
This shaman/muffin-guardian is obviously not going to overthrow the state
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) March 11, 2023
Fox News host Tucker Carlson on Monday released the new footage of Chansley in the Capitol as part of the 40,000 hours of footage given to him by House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA). The surveillance footage shows two officers escorting Chansley to the Senate floor, where he posed for several famous images.
“Virtually every moment of his time inside the Capitol was caught on tape,” Carlson said on Monday. “The tapes show the Capitol Police never stopped Jacob Chansley. They helped him. They acted as his tour guides.”
CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM THE WASHINGTON EXAMINER
One of the nation’s leading defense attorneys, Harvey Silverglate of Boston, told the Washington Examiner that Carlson’s footage appearing to show U.S. Capitol Police escorting Chansley could be a foreshadowing of an appeal to vacate his guilty plea, which through bargaining was chiseled down to a single count of obstruction of an official proceeding, landing him 41 months in prison.
Silverglate, a criminal defense and civil liberties attorney representing onetime Trump attorney John Eastman, said, “I think that he can get his guilty plea vacated,” referring to Chansley, who has yet to file an appeal or request a retrial.
