QAnon backer Jacob Chansley detained for Capitol riot by Trump

A self-described QAnon shaman was ordered held without bail Friday by a judge after prosecutors presented evidence he stormed into the Senate and left a menancing note for Vice President Mike Pence during a riot by pro-Trump supporters.

Jacob Chansley, the horn-wearing, spear-wielding, face-paint-wearing conspiracy theorist drew widespread attention Jan. 6 for his bizarre appearance among the mob that invaded the Capitol complex.

Before Friday’s detention hearing in U.S. District Court in Phoenix, federal prosecutors in Arizona said there is “strong evidence, including Chansley’s own words and actions at the Capitol, supports that the intent of the Capitol rioters was to capture and assassinate elected officials in the United States government.”

Those prosecutors dropped that claim at the bail hearing, after pushback from the top federal prosecutor in Washington, D.C., whose office lodged the two felonies and four misdemeanors that led to Chansley’s arrest.

Arizona federal prosecutors had also noted in that filing that “news reports suggest that the U.S. Capitol siege may just be the beginning of potentially violent actions from President [Donald] Trump‘s supporters.”

The filing by the office of Arizona U.S. Attorney Michael Bailey asked a judge on Friday to detain Chansley, one of the most notorious rioters arrested so far, without bail.

They said he has planned to return to Washington for President-elect Joe Biden‘s inauguration next week.

“Chansley is a self-proclaimed leader of the QAnon,” a group of conspiracy theorists that believes many U.S. lawmakers are part of a ring of child molesters and Satan worshipers, filing said. There were other believers in QAnon among the rioters.

“Chansley is an active participant in — and has made himself the most prominent symbol of — a violent insurrection that attempted to overthrow the United States government,” prosecutors wrote. “No [bail] conditions can reasonably assure his appearance [in court] as required, nor ensure the safety of the community.”

But Michael Sherwin, the acting U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia, during a press conference later Friday undercut the idea that there is evidence of assassination plots by the rioters.

“Right now, we don’t have direct evidence of kill-capture teams,” said Sherwin, whose office is the one that has lodged federal criminal charges against Chansley and other rioters.

Sherwin said “there may be a disconnect” between his office and those of federal prosecutors in Arizona and in Texas, who have made similar allegations.

Later Friday, at Chansley’s hearing in Phoenix, an assistant U.S. attorney asked judge to remove the sentence in the bail filing that claimed there was strong evidence of an intent to capture and killed elected officials.

While that statement “may very well be appropriate at a trial of Mr….