With Friends Like Al Watkins, Q-Anon Shaman Jacob Chansley Doesn't Need Enemies

Al Watkins, attorney for Q-Anon Shaman Jacob Chansley went on a media tour, supposedly to petition for the release of his client from federal prison pending trial. According to Watkins, Chansley’s mental health is of primary concern, and is affecting his overall well-being.

From a June 30 St. Louis Post Dispatch piece:

The lawyer for a man who entered the U.S. Capitol wearing fur and horns during the Jan. 6 insurrection wants him released from jail and housed in St. Louis.

Albert Watkins said during a federal court hearing held by video conference Wednesday that he has arranged secure housing for Jacob A. Chansley near his office, which is in Clayton. Watkins was responding to concerns by federal prosecutors that Chansley is a flight risk because his home state of Arizona borders Mexico.

Chansley, with his outfit and painted face, was one of the more recognizable of those who stormed the Capitol. He was also a follower of QAnon conspiracy theories who goes by the name “QAnon Shaman.” Watkins has said Chansley was duped by former President Donald Trump’s false claims of election fraud.

I have written about Watkins poor representation of Chansley. Instead of sticking to the merits of the case, crafting an argument that shows the lack of evidence and grounding in the charges, and defending his client’s innocence, Watkins chose to insult both his client, and the other alleged January 6 Capitol protesters as “short bus people” and “brain-damaged”.

Watkins is a legal gadfly who enjoys attaching himself to high-profile cases, for the sole purpose of camera time and sound bites. Johnny Cochran he is not, and his media appearances have harmed, rather than helped his clients’ cases. Along with Chansley, Watkins is also representing three other alleged Capitol rioters. Pity the poor souls.

Watkins would have better served his clients by working on the legal arguments rather than working the press.

On Tuesday, a federal judge rejected Watkins’ petition to have Chansley remanded into his custody in St. Louis. Apparently, if Chansley were remanded to his home state of Arizona, he would pose a flight risk. However, the judge wished to see evidence on how Chansley being housed in St. Louis would have made a difference in mitigating his ability to take flight.

U.S. District Judge Royce C. Lamberth said that defense lawyer Albert Watkins had presented no new information that would have a “material bearing” on whether Jacob A. Chansley, also known as the “QAnon Shaman,” was a flight risk if he were released from jail.

Watkins, in a court hearing held last Wednesday by video conference, said he’d arranged secure housing for Chansley near his office, and that Chansley was not dangerous, as prosecutors had claimed. He’d previously raised concerns about Chansley’s mental health, and the harm that jail was having.

Of course, Watkins failed to deliver this evidence.

Lamberth said Watkins had not mitigated his concerns that Chansley has shown an ability to travel by raising large sums of money via “non-traditional sources.”

Watkins continues to not only make a mockery of the judicial process, but enjoys playing marbles with people’s lives.

From the Local Fox 2 affiliate:

With his Comanche buffalo headdress, and dramatic face paint, Chansley has become the most visible symbol of January 6, and probably the most sympathetic pathetic. Like Paul and Marilyn Hueper, the Alaska couple whose home was raided because they were near the Capitol on that day, Chansley is another symbol of a police state run amok. After 6 months of multiple investigations, what continues to be uncovered is a Capitol Police staff that was thrown under the bus by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, a dead Trump supporter named Ashli Babbitt shot by a Capitol Police officer (who remains unnamed), and an FBI creating crimes where none existed in order to push an agenda of dangerous domestic terrorism fueled by Trump supporters.

But Watkins’ manipulation of Chansley into first rejecting Trump, then trying to make him a “star witness” of the second Trump Impeachment, and now claiming Chansley is suffering from a mental health breakdown, does not do Chansley any favors. Watkins’ theatrics continue to complicate and cloud what already is a clown car of misconduct from the Speaker of the House, the Capitol Police, all the way down—and we know what is flowing downstream.

The clown show continues as multiple investigations into January 6 continue to render a different narrative than the one pushed by the legacy media and the Democrats. Your tax dollars hard at work.

Now, Speaker Nancy Pelosi wants to continue to reinforce her version of events by using this January 6 “Select Committee”. You know the team is a partisan joke because it is led by crack Russia Collusion Democrat Adam Schiff, with the egregious Liz Cheney in tow to make it look bipartisan.

There is no need for popcorn here. The American people have moved on to another feature. For the sake of his life, Chansley needs to move on to another lawyer.