“You were wrong ugly”
This ruling, however severe, “will be enough to forever deter any criminal act of this kind,” prosecutor Kimberly Paschall said Wednesday.
“Justice will not sit idly by while the peaceful transfer of power is attacked.”
To explain the seriousness of the case, he recalled that Jacob Chansley had published “scathing messages” on social networks against “corrupt politicians and traitors in the government” long before the events of January 6.
“If the defendant had been peaceful, he would not be here today,” he said.
“A crowd that assaults the Capitol with the aim of interrupting the activities of the parliamentarians is not peaceful, it carries out a criminal obstruction,” he explained.
Speaking at length with the judge, Jacob Chansley stated that “he is not a dangerous criminal” but that he suffers from “personality disorders” that he wants to cure in order to become a “better man”.
“I am not a violent man, nor an insurgent and I am certainly not a terrorist. I am just a good man who broke the law,” he explained, claiming to believe “in freedom, law and order, and responsibility.”
Put in solitary confinement in prison, he said he had time to look in a mirror and say to himself: “Dude, you really made a mistake, ugly.”
Before the trial, his lawyer Albert Watkins had claimed that Chansley had repudiated the QAnon movement and said he was “disappointed” by Donald Trump.
A total of 664 people were charged to varying degrees for their involvement in the deadly assault on the Capitol, according to the George Washington University Extremism Research Program.
Five people were killed during or shortly after the attack, including a police officer and a protester killed by an officer inside the building.