The Justice Department wants the high-profile Capitol riot defendant known as “QAnon Shaman” Jacob Chansley to receive stiff penalties for his crime, calling him “quite literally, their flagbearer” among the mob of insurrectionists on January 6th.
In their sentencing request to the judge filed this week, federal prosecutors made it clear they want to use Chansley’s sentence as an example to deter against future attacks on the United States government.
In the filing prosecutors wrote that the attempted coup made the public question the safety and security of the nation.
“Those enormous harms, borne out of the acts of this defendant, must be deterred so that we never see a similar assault on our democracy again,” they wrote.
Chansley, a well-known figure in the “QAnon” movement, is set to be sentenced next Wednesday by Federal Judge Royce Lamberth of the DC District Court.
Chansley, who has been in custody for nearly 10 months, is one of the first felony defendants to receive his punishment.
“The government cannot overstate the seriousness of the defendant’s conduct as one of the most prominent figures of the historic riot,” prosecutors wrote in their sentencing request to the judge late last night. “The severity of his actions, and respect for the laws of this country, must be impressed upon him.”
The Justice Department wants Judge Lamberth to sentence him to 51 months in prison, followed by three years on supervised release, a calculation which is at the high end of US Sentencing Commission guidelines.
