In an alarming evaluation of final week’s Capitol rampage, federal prosecutors mentioned that rioters meant “to seize and assassinate elected officers,” based on a memo filed in court docket.
The 18-page doc was submitted Thursday as a part of the federal felony case in opposition to Jacob Anthony Chansley, who goes by the identify Jake Angeli and is a well known conspiracy theorist referred to as the “Q Shaman.”
Mr. Chansley, a fixture of the QAnon conspiracy motion, has change into among the many most conspicuous figures of the Capitol riot. He was photographed within the constructing bare-chested, together with his face painted pink, white and blue, and carrying a fur headdress with horns, holding an American-flag draped spear.
Prosecutors mentioned Mr. Chansley approached a Capitol Police officer and screamed that members of the mob “had been there to take the Capitol and to get congressional leaders.” Within the Senate chamber, he ran as much as the dais the place Vice President Mike Pence had been presiding simply minutes earlier than and started posing for different rioters to {photograph}.
He wrote a notice for Mr. Pence, studying, “it’s solely a matter of time, justice is coming.”
The following day, Mr. Chansley referred to as the F.B.I. and confessed to his actions, admitting that he was capable of enter the Senate “by the grace of God.” Prosecutors are arguing for Mr. Chansley to be detained till his trial begins, noting that he needs to return to Washington for President-elect Joseph R. Biden Jr.’s inauguration.
“I’ll nonetheless go, you higher consider it,” he advised the F.B.I.
In Texas, a federal prosecutor mentioned one other rioter, Lt. Col. Rendall Brock Jr., deliberate to take hostages with zip-tie handcuffs when he stormed the Capitol final week and pointed to an array of violent on-line threats that Mr. Brock made within the run-up to the mob assault.
Mr. Brock, a former Air Drive officer with a number of excursions in Afghanistan and Iraq, was photographed within the mayhem carrying handcuffs and carrying gear emblazoned with the insignia of the 706th Fighter Squadron, through which he as soon as served.
He was arrested on Sunday in Texas after his ex-wife contacted the F.B.I. after she acknowledged him in {a photograph}. He has been charged with violent entry and disorderly conduct on Capitol grounds and knowingly coming into or remaining in a restricted constructing or grounds with out lawful authority.