Topic: WorldNetDaily
We've shown how WorldNetDaily has been despserately trying to turn "QAnon Shaman" insurrectionist Jacob Chansley into a victim by hyping cherry-picked and misleadingly edited video showing him acting peacefully that was aired by then-Fox News host Tucker Carlson. Peter LaBarbera found another piece of cherry-picked video to promote for a March 16 article:
Newly-released police bodycam footage from Jan. 6 shows Trump supporters obeying cops leading them out of the Senate chamber, with some even thanking the police — further eviscerating the Democrats' "deadly insurrection" J6 narrative.
The footage came to light due to the sentencing trial of Jacob Chansley, the infamous horned J6 protester dubbed the "QAnon Shaman" by the media. Chansley is shown in the video thanking the police officers who are clearing ralliers out of the Senate chamber in the U.S. Capitol building.
The video shared on Twitter by "D. Scott" (@eclipsethis2003) hit social media on Tuesday and conservatives responded with outrage, with many saying the liberal J6 narrative is collapsing before their eyes. D. Scott's March 14 tweet reads: "Newly released video footage captured by body-worn police cameras has shown a new perspective of the clearing of the Senate chamber from Jan. 6. The footage was presented as evidence during Jacob Chansley’s sentencing [hearing] and was finally made public today."
[...]
Chansley himself is shown in footage, saying to the officers as he approached the door, "Thank you for your patience. We really appreciate it." It was Fox News Tucker Carlson's airing of previously unseen J6 footage of a cooperative Chansley being led around inside the Capitol by police that engendered a new wave of outrage and skepticism among conservatives toward the Democrat-run Jan. 6 Committee and the "insurrection" narrative it attempted to sell to the public (in part through cherry-picked videos).
Of course, the video LaBarbera is hyping was cherry-picked. By contrast, prosecutors pointed out that these selectively edited videos "did not show Chansley, who was sentenced to 41 months in prison for his actions on January 6, facing off with officers for half an hour outside the Senate chamber or when Chansley refused to be escorted out of the Capitol by an officer and only left after being forcibly removed," adding: "Chansley was not some passive, chaperoned observer of events for the roughly hour that he was unlawfully inside the Capitol. ... He was part of the initial breach of the building; he confronted law enforcement for roughly 30 minutes just outside the Senate Chamber; he gained access to the gallery of the Senate along with other members of the mob (obviously, precluding any Senate business from occurring); and he gained access to and later left the Senate floor only after law enforcement was able to arrive en masse to remove him.”
When Chansley was moved to a halfway house a couple weeks later, Bob Unruh tried to credit those videos in a March 30 article:
Security video of the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, shows Jacob Chansley, 35, the "QAnon Shaman," being escorted into the Senate that day by security officers in the building.
Now, after his lawyer charged that the government deliberately had withheld exculpatory information about his client, Chansley has been released from a federal prison and moved to a halfway house.
[...]
Chansley was a key part of many of the videos of the Jan. 6 events at the Capitol, when hundreds protested what they saw as an unfair – even stolen – election, with his costume of helmet and such.
He pleaded guilty in September 2021 to civil disorder and violent entry and was given 41 months in prison.
The report explained, "Bureau of Prison records confirmed that Chansley is in the custody of the Residential Reentry Management field office in Phoenix, with a release date set for May 25."
[Chansley attorney Albert] Watkins decline[d] to attribute a reason for the decision.
"This was a decision of the US Bureau of Prisons," he said.
The report pointed out federal guidelines allow for reduced time for good behavior, "but under those guidelines Chansley would have expected to serve at least 35 months and 22 days of his 41-month sentence."
Watkins had argued only weeks ago that Chansley should be freed based on video publicized by Fox News host Tucker Carlson that showed him not breaking into the Senate, but actually being escorted there by security officers in the Capitol.
In fact, Watkins also admitted that "It was a decision which was part of an established protocol in place since well prior to the release of the videos" -- meaning the videos played no role whatsoever.
