Lawyer for 'QAnon shaman' claims client's health deteriorating in jail without organic food
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Lawyer for 'QAnon shaman' claims client's health deteriorating in jail without organic food
Updated Wed, February 3, 2021, 2:51 PM
The “QAnon shaman” who was part of the deadly riots at the Capitol Jan. 6 hasn’t eaten for more than a week in a D.C. correctional facility because he needs organic food, his lawyer wrote in a filing Wednesday.
Due to his “shamanic belief system and way of life,” eating food that isn’t organic or has “unnatural chemicals” would cause Jacob Chansley “systemic responses that are not simply discomforting, but debilitating and, notably, dehydrating,” Chansley's attorney Albert Watkins wrote. Chansley has lost more than 20 pounds and his condition is “declining,” Watkins wrote.
“[N]on-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. An 'object intrusion,' is the belief that disease originates outside the body from unhealthy objects coming into the body,” Watkins wrote. “In shamanic traditions, the body, mind, and soul are interconnected, and the well-being of all three are necessary for my client to be able to practice his faith."
Last week, Chansley filed a request for organic food, which he said is all he has eaten for the past eight years, according to court documents. He said the last time he ate was the morning of Jan. 25 and asked for some canned vegetables, canned wild-caught tuna or organic canned soup.
“I will continue to pray thru the pain and do my best not to complain,” Chansley wrote in the request. “I have strayed from my spiritual diet only a few times over the last 8 years with detrimental physical effects. As a spiritual man I am willing to suffer for my beliefs, hold to my convictions, and the weight of their consequences.”
Eric Glover, general counsel for Washington, D.C.,’s Department of Corrections, disputed that Chansley hasn’t eaten in a Tuesday email to Watkins filed in court documents.
At a hearing Friday, a judge urged Chansley's lawyer to try to work out the issues related to his diet with Glover. Chansley’s request for organic food was denied on Monday, according to the documents, which said his claims had no “religious merit.”
In the filing Wednesday, Watkins called for Chansley to be released before his trial, saying he doesn’t have a criminal history, wasn’t “part of a grand scheme to ... overthrow the Government” and that it would remove any issues with Chansley’s “worsening health situation.” Watkins wrote Wednesday that Chansley has also been compliant with the FBI. The judge in the case has said he'd be open to considering bail for him in early March .
The Phoenix man was among the first people indicted by federal prosecutors in wake of the Capitol insurrection that left five people dead. Chansley, also known as Jake Angeli, was charged with violating the Federal Anti-Riot Act and obstructing Congress, among other charges. Former President Donald Trump was subsequently impeached for inciting an insurrection. Chansley would also be willing to testify at Trump’s Senate trial next week, Watkins has previously said .
Prosecutors have argued Chansley was "an active participant in" the "violent insurrection," suggesting charges of sedition or insurrection could be in the works for people involved .
The horns and fur Chansley wore Jan. 6 that made him one of the most recognizable faces of the riots were all part of his “Shaman beliefs,” Watkins wrote in the filing Wednesday.
Watkins also argued in his Wednesday filing that Trump incited the riot by saying "'if you don't fight like hell you're not going to have a country anymore" at a rally before the riot. In an interview on CNN in wake of the riots , Watkins said Chansley "felt like he was answering” Trump’s call and called on Trump to give him a pardon.
“He felt like his voice was, for the first time, being heard,” Watkins said of Chansley . “And what ended up happening, over the course of the lead-up to the election, over the course of the period from the election to Jan. 6 — it was a driving force by a man he hung his hat on, he hitched his wagon to. He loved Trump. Every word, he listens to him.”
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Who knew that such fierce 'patriots' had such delicate tummies!
Indeed. It's not like he's being denied meals. He is simply choosing not to eat. So if he starves, that's his own fault. And who cares anyway?
Agreed. If he can keep this up for another 20 days or so, he'll save the government plenty of money by not having to go through an expensive trial.
“[N]on-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. An 'object intrusion,' is the belief that disease originates outside the body from unhealthy objects coming into the body,” Watkins wrote. “In shamanic traditions, the body, mind, and soul are interconnected, and the well-being of all three are necessary for my client to be able to practice his faith."
Gee then maybe Mr. Sensitive Tummy shouldn't have 'intruded' his object(his body) onto(into) the Capitol with the rest of the former occupant of the White House's mob.
How about all that unhealthy insanity coming into the (mind) body from QANon?
He's already practicing his faith by not eating things he finds objectionable. No one is forcing him to eat non-organic foods.
I'd have to see a medical certification, outside of allergies, for that claim.
We all know how irrational it is to go by mere belief.
He's lucky he didn't get shot when doing so. I imagine bullets would be quite the "object intrusion onto his body."
There's lots of good play(s) on words I/we could do with that - 'object intrusion' and what not . . . . . .
Giggity!
I'm sure all the shit you've been swallowing over the years hasn't helped either . . . .
you'd think he could get all the protein shakes he wanted in the DC lockup.
I would say that was pure poison.
What to bet this idiot would be first in line to say prisoners should eat whatever they are given...
Yet now he is locked up...oh the horror of how I am treated...
Tough shit asswipe.
Qbacca should be getting all the organic meat he can handle in jail.
wonder how he would have fared on one of those late 1700s prison ships , from what i understand the prisoners were served stuff i wouldnt feed to the hogs...
Give this guy an orange, a banana, and some raw veggies for breakfast, lunch and dinner, and then add in an undressed baked potato for Sunday lunch.
I can just picture the reaction of the prison warden when he heard the plea for organic food....
Let him starve if he so chooses.