The QAnon Shaman feels played by Trump, lawyer says
- The "QAnon Shaman" now feels that President Donald Trump hoodwinked him, his lawyer said.
- Jacob Chansley is in a Washington, DC, jail and awaiting trial over the US Capitol riot.
- "He has come to grasp that fact that the former president really didn't love him," his lawyer said.
Jacob Chansley, the "QAnon Shaman" who became a symbol of the US Capitol riot, now feels that President Donald Trump played him, his lawyer told The Daily Beast on Wednesday.
Chansley - who carried a spear, wore bull horns, and covered himself in war paint at the January 6 riot - was arrested and charged with civil disorder, obstruction, and disorderly conduct three days later.
QAnon is a baseless far-right conspiracy theory positing that Trump, while president, was secretly fighting a "deep state" cabal of satanic pedophiles and cannibals. Trump often retweeted QAnon figures and in August described the conspiracy theory's advocates as "people who love our country."
Trump staying in power was a key part of QAnon ideology, and many adherents thought January 6 would be the date of "The Storm," in which Trump would cleanse Washington of its elites.
After Trump lost reelection, however, Joe Biden was sworn in as president on January 20.
Chansley, who is in custody in Washington, DC, while awaiting trial, is now appearing to turn on Trump.
"He has come to grasp that fact that the former president really didn't love him and that all the bulls--- about Trump's army and all the social-media-driven conspiracy theories led to a lot of the vulnerability," Albert Watkins told The Daily Beast.
"Has my client gone through a wholesale repudiation on his previous beliefs? No. It's part of an ongoing process. But he has recognized his role and my client has bellied up and realized he needs to do right by his country."
Watkins added that Chansley felt he had fallen for a "propaganda machine."
Watkins told The Daily Beast that the president's decision not to accept a request for a presidential pardon was the final straw but that Chansley's apparent epiphany about Trump had been coming for weeks.
Watkins told the Arizona TV station KSDK on January 21 that Chansley felt "duped" by Trump.
"He regrets very, very much having not just been duped by the president but by being in a position where he allowed that duping to put him in a position to make decisions he should not have made," Watkins said.
On January 28, Chansley offered to attend Trump's impeachment trial to testify against the president.
As Insider's Jacob Shamsian reported, Chansley is refusing to eat in prison because the food is not organic. Watkins said his client had not eaten in a week and had lost 20 pounds in custody as a result.
Watkins told the court Wednesday that Chansley's idol was Mahatma Gandhi and that he was a "gentleman" who "catches insects and releases them outside."
Chansley, who is from Phoenix, served in the US Navy from 2005 to 2007.