Judge orders U.S. to return spear, helmet to ‘QAnon Shaman’

The horned helmet and spear-tipped flagpole, along with the furry vest, tattooed torso and brightly painted face, made Jacob A. Chansley the “face of the riot at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021,” the D.C. judge who handled his case wrote last year. Now that judge is ordering the government to return the helmet and spear to the “QAnon Shaman,” rejecting prosecutors’ claim that the items might still be needed as evidence.

Chansley, now 37, was one of the first rioters to enter the Capitol on Jan. 6, and the first to be indicted, in part because he was filmed on the floor of the Senate chamber cursing at then-Vice President Mike Pence and gave multiple media interviews after leaving the building. Chansley carried an electric megaphone and encouraged other rioters during the insurrection. It was not clear if the megaphone was seized or will be returned.

In a motion filed in May, Chansley’s lawyer William L. Shipley Jr. said Chansley and his family had been trying since February 2023 to have Chansley’s property returned. Shipley said the FBI gave the family the runaround, refusing to hand over the property and forcing him to file a motion with Senior U.S. District Judge Royce C. Lamberth.

Prosecutors said they needed to “continue to hold the property as evidence until such finality in the criminal prosecution is assured,” including whether Chansley might challenge his conviction. Also, the government might still seek civil forfeiture of the property, Assistant U.S. Attorney Rick Blaylock Jr. wrote.

Lamberth waved aside the government’s concerns. “As there is voluminous video and photo evidence of Mr. Chansley’s conduct,” Lamberth wrote Monday, “his property is of little utility for an investigation or prosecution” and the government’s “legitimate interests can be satisfied even if the property is returned.” For forfeiture purposes, the judge noted that Chansley was arrested 3½ years ago and prosecutors never sought permanent forfeiture of the helmet and spear.

“The Court therefore finds that the retention of Mr. Chansley’s property would be unreasonable,” Lamberth concluded.

“Judge Lamberth has my respect and gratitude,” Chansley said in an X message to the Washington Post. “His ruling is just and impartial. He is simply requiring the government to follow the law as it is written.”

Chansley was held in jail from the day of his arrest in January 2021, and pleaded guilty in September that year to obstruction of an official proceeding, a charge which has since been largely invalidated by the Supreme Court in the cases of Capitol riot defendants.

“I am truly, truly repentant for my actions,” Chansley told Lamberth at his sentencing in November 2021. “Repentance is apologizing and then moving in the exact opposite direction of the sin that you committed. And that’s what I’ve been trying to do ever since I realized the magnitude of my error and the magnitude of my mistake.”

Lamberth said he was impressed by Chansley’s remorse, and gave him a 41-month sentence, at the low end of the federal sentencing guidelines. Chansley was released in March 2023, and is now on supervised release. He tried to run for Congress earlier this year in Arizona but did not gather enough signatures to qualify for the ballot. He has also been active on social media.