Why the Jan. 6 ‘QAnon Shaman’ can get his spear and helmet back

The so-called QAnon Shaman can get his infamous spear and helmet back, a federal judge has decided, noting that the government never sought forfeiture of the property in the Jan. 6 case.  

U.S. District Judge Royce Lamberth began his ruling Monday by observing that, while Jacob Chansley stormed the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, like thousands of others, he stood out to the world due to his outfit of “a horned coyote-tail headdress; red, white, and blue face paint; gloves; and no shirt,” and that he had armed himself with what the judge called a “serious weapon”: “a six-foot pole with an American flag ziptied to the shaft and a metal spearhead fixed to the top.”

Since pleading guilty in September of that year, Chansley has completed his prison term. Now he wants his property back. Lamberth agreed to the return, reasoning that “the government has not established that it still needs these items as evidence and has not sought their forfeiture.” Had it sought forfeiture by now, the Reagan appointee wrote, Chansley’s motion “may have turned out differently,” but the judge saw “no reason to delay or deny Mr. Chansley relief based on the government’s hypothetical future choice to take a step it could have already taken.”

Prosecutors opposed Chansley’s request because they said they wanted to be certain that the case was completely over. They pointed to the Supreme Court’s June decision in Fischer v. United States, which narrowed obstruction charges against Jan. 6 defendants — specifically, the charge of obstructing an official proceeding to which Chansley pleaded guilty.

But Lamberth said it’s unclear how Chansley could challenge his conviction at this point, and that even if prosecutors need the evidence in the future for some reason, there’s “voluminous video and photo evidence of Mr. Chansley’s conduct.”

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