Jacob Chansley, the Capitol rioter known as the "QAnon Shaman," celebrated receiving a pardon on Monday by thanking President Trump and announcing his immediate plans in a post on X. "Now I am gonna buy some m------------ guns!" Chansley wrote, per the Hill. Experts who study extremist groups fear he's not the only person convicted in the Jan. 6 attack with that idea, per the Washington Post. "This move is going to make combating terrorism far more difficult, not just over the next four years as groups feel like they have an ally in the White House, but beyond that as well," said Jacob Ware, a Council on Foreign Relations research fellow.
About 1,500 others received "full, complete, and unconditional pardons." Many had already completed their sentences but more than 200, some of whom committed violence against law enforcement officers, were freed from behind bars. Chansley's plea deal called for dismissing five charges against him when he pleaded guilty to a felony charge of obstructing an official proceeding, receiving a 41-month prison sentence. After a year and a half, he was sent to a halfway house, from which he was released in May 2023. "J6ers are getting released & justice has come," Chansley's post says.
Michael Fanone, a DC police officer on the day of the riot, sees the pardons differently, per the Daily Beast. The mob tasered him several times, took his ammunition and police radio and his badge. As he lay on the ground injured, Falcone heard, "Kill him with his own gun" as the attackers tried to tear away his weapon. "I have been betrayed by my country, and I have been betrayed by those who supported Donald Trump," Fanone told CNN on Monday. "The only thing going through my mind is that this is what the American people voted for." (More Jacob Chansley stories.)
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