The Biden administration likely felt as though they had a nice little trick up their sleeve after the January 6th select committee sent 4 criminal referrals to the Department of Justice, all with 2024 presumptive GOP nominee Donald Trump’s name on them.
The DOJ could then choose to act, or not act, on the referrals until such a time as it would be convenient for those looking to keep Trump out of office.
What the January 6th select committee didn’t expect was to have 40,000 hours of J6 footage released to Fox News, much of which portrays an orderly protest and lackadaisical event inside the Capitol on that fateful day.
This included footage of the infamous “QAnon Shaman” being escorted calmly through the halls of the Congress by Capitol Police.
The shocking turn of events had Twitter CEO Elon Musk lighting up the social media network.
Twitter overlord Elon Musk showed sympathy on Friday for the Capitol rioter dubbed the “QAnon Shaman,” in the billionaire’s latest effort to downplay the deadly events of Jan. 6, 2021.
“Free Jacob Chansley,” Musk tweeted to his 130 million followers, apparently suggesting the rioter’s sentence was unwarranted.
Chansley had earned his nickname by raiding the U.S. Capitol bare-chested on Jan. 6 with a furry Viking-style hat and face paint, carrying an American flag zip-tied to a spear.
And that wasn’t all Musk had to say:
“Chansley got 4 years in prison for a non-violent, police-escorted tour!?” the Twitter and Tesla CEO marveled. (The sentence was less than four years.) In another tweet, Musk claimed Chansley “was falsely portrayed in the media as a violent criminal who tried to overthrow the state and who urged others to commit violence.”
“I’m not part of MAGA, but I do believe in fairness of justice,” he added.
Fox News’ airing of the footage has been controversial among Democrats and old guard Republicans, while overtly lauded by MAGA-aligned lawmakers.
