WASHINGTON, D.C. – Newly-released surveillance footage from the January 6, 2021 riots in Washington, D.C. show two Capitol Police officers actually escorting the so-called “QAnon Shaman” – AKA Jacob Chansley – around the Capitol Building and to the floor of the U.S. Senate chamber.
The new footage was revealed on Tucker Carlson’s Fox News show Monday night shows the officers following Chansley – clad in face paint and a furry, horned hat – around the Capitol during the riots, and doing nothing whatsoever to prevent him from proceeding.
“Virtually every moment of his time inside the Capitol was caught on tape. The tapes show the Capitol Police never stopped Jacob Chansley. They helped him. They acted as his tour guides,” Carlson said. ““Not one of them even tried to slow him down. He understood that the Capitol Police were his allies…if he was in the act of committing such a grave crime, why didn’t the officers standing right next to him place him under arrest?”
At one point during the footage, Chansley, 33, can be seen walking with the two officers past a group of seven other officers, who barely take notice. They then proceed to several locked doors of the Senate chamber, and eventually the officers help Chansley open a door and enter.
Chansley was eventually arrested after the riots and sentenced to four years for “obstructing an official proceeding.”
Carlson was given exclusive access to 40,000 hours of surveillance footage from the riots by House Speaker Kevin McCarthy; much of the footage shown on his program Monday had never before been seen by the public.
Carlson also played a clip of a jailhouse interview with Chansley, who said that he would not have proceeded into the Capitol if the officers in question had made any effort to stop him.
“The one very serious regret that I have [is] believing that when we were waved in by police officers, that it was acceptable,” he said.
In response to the footage, the Capitol Police released a statement, claiming that the officers failed to detain Chansley because they were attempting to “de-escalate” the situation due to police being outnumbered by rioters.
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