Missouri lawyer and Greitens foe takes ‘QAnon Shaman’ case after Capitol riot charges
The St. Louis attorney who helped bring down former Missouri Gov. Eric Greitens will represent the so-called “QAnon Shaman” who stormed the U.S. Capitol last week in the deadly insurrection aimed at overturning the presidential election.
Attorney Al Watkins said in a statement that his client, Jacob A. Chansley, the Arizona man whose furry headdress and painted face went viral during the siege, was acting on the invitation of President Donald Trump when he and others forced their way into the U.S. Capitol and halted Congress’ debate on Electoral College votes.
“He took seriously the countless messages of President Trump. He believed in President Trump. Like tens of millions of other Americans, Chansley felt — for the first time in his life — as though his voice was being heard,” Watkins said.
Watkins’ defense of Chansley dovetails with the argument made by the U.S. House, which voted Wednesday 232 to 197 to impeach Trump for incitement of insurrection. Supporters of impeachment blame Trump’s exhortation of his supporters to converge on the Capitol for the violence.
Watkins called on Trump, in his final week in office, to pardon his client, a move that would send shock waves through Washington, which is still reeling from the attack on the U.S. Capitol.
“The words and invitation of a president are supposed to mean something. Given the peaceful and compliant fashion in which Mr. Chansley comported himself, it would be appropriate and honorable for the president to pardon Mr. Chansley and other like-minded, peaceful individuals who accepted the president’s invitation with honorable intentions,” Watkins said.
Chansley, who also uses the alias Jake Angeli, briefly served in Navy, but was reportedly kicked out in 2007 for refusing to take the anthrax vaccine. He is a proponent of QAnon, the fringe conspiracy theory whose followers believe Trump is at war with a secret cabal of pedophiles.
Chansley is currently being held in a federal facility in Phoenix, charged “with knowingly entering or remaining in any restricted building or grounds without lawful authority, and with violent entry and disorderly conduct on Capitol grounds,” according to a Saturday statement from the Justice Department.
Watkins claimed that his client did not play any part in the violence at the Capitol, which left five dead, including a police officer, and he immediately surrendered himself to the FBI when he became aware that federal law enforcement was looking for him.
“He was unarmed. He was not violent. He was not destructive. His attire was consistent with his long-held Shaman beliefs,” Watkins said.
Watkins served as attorney for Mark and Patricia McCloskey, the wealthy St. Louis couple who became the subject of national controversy when they pointed firearms at Black Lives Matter marchers who had entered a private road on their way to protest at St. Louis Mayor Lyda Krewson’s house.
Trump asked Missouri Gov. Mike Parson to intervene on their behalf after St. Louis Circuit Attorney Kim Gardner charged the couple with felonies for the incident. Trump asked Parson to remove Gardner, the elected prosecutor of St. Louis, from office, something the governor lacks the authority to do.
The couple ended up being featured at the 2020 Republican National Convention. Their case is still pending, but Parson has said he intends to pardon the McCloskeys if they’re convicted.
Watkins also represented the ex-husband of the woman who Greitens, the former Missouri governor, allegedly photographed nude without her consent.
Gardner charged Greitens with felony invasion of privacy after Watkins distributed to the media audio of the woman alleging Greitens used the photo to blackmail her.
The case was dropped a day before the criminal trial was set to begin, but Greitens resigned from office weeks later in the wake of the scandal.
Watkins was the recipient of more than $100,000 in cash related to the audio, which was surreptitiously-recorded by his client without the woman’s consent. The source of the money remains in dispute.
This story was originally published January 14, 2021 at 6:27 PM.
