CLAYTON, Mo. — A federal judge on Wednesday ordered jail officials to provide organic food for the "QAnon Shaman," one of the people charged with participating in the Jan. 6 riot at the U.S. Capitol.
The ruling was in response to a motion by Clayton lawyer Albert Watkins, who said Jacob Chansley had not eaten since Jan. 25 and had lost more than 20 pounds. Chansley has followed an organic diet for eight years, the motion says.
Watkins' motion says that in Chansley's belief system, "non-organic food, which contains unnatural chemicals, would act as an ‘object intrusion’ onto his body and cause serious illness if he were to eat it."
In a court hearing held by Zoom, lawyers for the District of Columbia jail where Chansley is being held said they could find no requirement for organic food in shamanism.
But U.S. District Judge Royce C. Lamberth said that he would defer to an earlier decision by federal prison officials to provide organic food to Chansley. Chansley was arrested in Arizona, where he lives, and later taken to Washington to face six federal charges including violent entry and disorderly conduct on Capitol grounds.
Federal prosecutors, in their own motion, took no position on the food issue.
Watkins has mounted a spirited and public defense of Chansley, who was in the Capitol shirtless, with a painted face, a spear and a hat sporting coyote fur and horns. Watkins first said that former President Donald Trump had encouraged the rioters and invited then into the Capitol. He then demanded a pardon for Chansley and the other rioters, and said Chansley was willing to testify in Trump's impeachment trial when the pardon was not granted.
Prosecutors have said Chansley was one of the first rioters in the building and left a note for then-Vice President Mike Pence, who had just fled the Senate floor minutes before, that read, “It’s only a matter of time, justice is coming.” Chansley has been a vocal Trump supporter who was frequently spotted at Trump rallies and promoted the false conspiracy theory of widespread election fraud.
One Capitol police officer was killed during the riot and 140 Capitol and Washington officers were injured, authorities have said.
