- The court released two new videos Tuesday depicting protesters swarming the Capitol on January 6.
- The footage appears to debunk claims made by the
QAnon Shaman that officers "waved" protesters in. - The "Shaman's" lawyer said he was suspicious the videos had been released only after the hearing.
One week after a federal judge decided
In a jailhouse interview with "60 Minutes+" earlier this month, the self-described QAnon Shaman, his lawyer, and his mother all repeated the claim that Chansley had only entered the Capitol because police officers had "waved" protesters in, signaling to Chansley that the move was "acceptable."
But in a March 8 motion remanding Chansley into custody, Judge Royce Lamberth skewered Chansley's story, saying the 33-year-old "blatantly lied" about his alleged invitation into the building and referenced video footage obtained by the government that Lamberth said disproved Chansley's claims about Capitol police officers.
"Not only is [Chansley] unable to offer evidence substantiating his claim that he was waved into the Capitol, but evidence submitted by the government proves this claim false," Lamberth wrote. "A video submitted by the government captures protesters breaking through the windows of the Capitol building."
On Tuesday, the court released that footage.
The two videos, first obtained by Law & Crime, depict the chaos inside and outside the US Capitol on January 6 as a pro-Trump mob appears to accost Capitol Police officers and eventually begins smashing the windows to enter the federal building en masse.
In the first video, Chansley can be seen standing on scaffolding in the air, holding an American flag as the crowd chants "stop the steal." Chansley is easily identifiable in both videos by his outfit, which includes red, white, and blue face paint, a horned headdress, and his bare chest.
The second video depicts a similar mob near the building, screaming "this is our country!" The protesters begin banging on the windows until they shatter and then start climbing through to enter the building. At the same time, Chansley and several others can be seen entering the building through a door.
It is unclear how or when the doors were opened.
There don't appear to be any police officers or security guards near the door as the crowd storms in, and no officers can be seen in the video waving protesters in.
"The government's video shows that [Chansley] blatantly lied during his interview with '60 Minutes+' when he said that police officers waved him into the building," Lamberth wrote. "Further this video confirms [Chansley] did not...enter, as defense counsel represents, in the 'third wave' of the breach. To the contrary, he quite literally spearheaded it."
Chansley's lawyer, Al Watkins, however, told Insider Tuesday that "it is strongly suggested the videos are one dimensional."
"Subsequent scrutiny of the video footage (including the The New Yorker video specifically cited by the Government) has given rise to the identification of numerous ambiguities, irregularities, inconsistencies, timeline issues and concern about the assertions of the Government about the actions of Mr. Chansley based on the Government's video footage," Watkins said in a statement.
Watkins also issued a request for members of the public to "provide any video footage which depicts the Shaman in or around the Capitol on January 6, 2021," and has set up an email address for the public to send any evidence, according to the outlet.
The Arizona-native is facing six charges and up to 20 years in prison over his role in the riot. In addition to accusations that he illegally trespassed when breaching the Capitol, court records claim Chansley also clashed with Capitol police officers, went into the Senate chamber, and left a note on then-Vice President Mike Pence's dais saying "it's only a matter of time, justice is coming."