On January 6, 2021, a bare-chested man covered in Norse tattoos and furs, with horns on his head and a spear in his hand, strode through the US Capitol and sat in the vice president’s seat in the Senate chamber.
The painted face of the man who would become known around the world as the ‘QAnon Shaman’ was one of the most indelible images of the attack that engulfed Congress and sent shockwaves across the world.
Chaos erupted as a mob of Trump supporters stormed the Capitol while lawmakers met to certify President-elect Joe Biden’s 2020 election victory.
These days, Jake Angeli – though going by Jacob Chansley five years ago – is still a shaman in his native Arizona, and remains adamant that his behavior on January 6 was not threatening.
‘You know that viral clip where it looks like I’m screaming?’ he told the Daily Mail.
‘Everybody thinks I’m screaming – common misconception. No, dude, I’m actually singing. I was singing and at the climax of my shamanic song.
‘I was singing to cleanse the ley lines in that harmonic chamber, and the ripple effect of that went global.’
Jake Angeli, aka the ‘QAnon Shaman,’ inside the US Capitol on January 6, 2021. ‘Everybody thinks I’m screaming… I was singing’
Jake Angeli as he is today, five years after he became globally known on January 6
Angeli’s prominence that day helped make him instantly recognizable among the January 6 defendants.
He later pleaded guilty to obstructing an official proceeding and, in November 2021, was sentenced to 41 months in prison.
In court, minus his headdress, he declared himself ‘truly repentant’, while the judge described his mea culpa as ‘the most remarkable I’ve heard in 34 years.’
Ultimately, he was released from jail after 27 months for good behavior with part of the remainder of his sentence served in community confinement under standard official procedures. Prison, he said, ‘sucked.’
On Trump’s first day back in office on January 20, 2025, Angeli was among roughly 1,500 ‘J6ers’ granted clemency in a sweeping proclamation covering offenses linked to the Capitol attack.
The prominence of Angeli, above in the Senate chamber during the riot at the US Capitol, helped make him instantly recognizable among the so-called J6ers
President Donald Trump speaking at a rally near the White House before supporters stormed the US Capitol to try to stop Congress from certifying President-elect Joe Biden’s victory
Now, though, Angeli says he is less enamored of Trump – largely because of what he believes about the still-contentious Epstein files.
Late last year, he appeared in full shaman regalia at a ‘No Kings’ protest in Phoenix carrying a sign showing the face of the convicted pedophile Jeffrey Epstein and the words: ‘Distract to deceive.’
‘I am moving away from Trump and politics because it is toxic,’ Angeli told the Daily Mail.
‘Trump is a liar. He deceived the entire country, and he’s now taking us into war because he’s in the Epstein files. You know, he’s taking us into war unconstitutionally. Politically, it’s all corrupt as f***.
‘People don’t know about the Epstein files, people don’t know the truth about what was going on on the island, people don’t know the truth about what was going on at Zorro ranch.
‘If they knew what was going on, then Donald Trump would not be president.’
Since his release, Angeli has flirted with running for Congress as a Libertarian or for governor of Arizona.
He has also promoted a forthcoming self-published book, Shamanic Apocalypse, which sets out his beliefs.
Jake Angeli at a No Kings Protest in Phoenix, Arizona on October 18, 2025
Angeli told the Daily Mail he has ‘moved away’ from Trump and politics because it is ‘toxic’
Among his political and spiritual claims is a $40 trillion civil lawsuit filed last September in Maricopa County, Arizona, against the President and a long list of other defendants, including the International Monetary Fund.
In it, Angeli sets out a distinctly America First, anti-war worldview, accusing the government of ‘continuing multiple deadly wars for profit’, and even allowing foreign leaders to dictate US foreign policy in the Middle East and eastern European.
He also alleges that the Patriot Act was used to place him under National Security Agency surveillance, and that the NSA catfished him on Facebook.
In the lawsuit, he declares himself president of a ‘New Constitutional Republic of the United States,’ with its capital in Phoenix, and says he would have the Federal Reserve mint a $40 trillion gold coin to wipe out the national debt.
‘We must end the Fed,’ he said.
‘QAnon Shaman’ was sentenced to 41 months in prison for obstructing an official proceeding. The judge described his mea culpa as ‘the most remarkable I’ve heard in 34 years’
Angeli with America First former congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene, who has also moved away from Trump
Angeli says that America is experiencing a ‘crisis of consciousness’ and his book is intended to be a ‘spiritual map out of the mess.’
‘We don’t have to have a war,’ he said. ‘We don’t have to have a revolution. We can have an evolution, an evolution of consciousness.
‘People don’t realize that everything is one, that we’re all one, bro. They don’t realize that they’re destroying their mother earth.’