‘They Had A Duty’: Attorney Who Defended QAnon Shaman Says Gov’t Never Gave Him Video Evidence

The former attorney for Jacob Chansley, the “QAnon Shaman,” told Fox News host Tucker Carlson Wednesday that he did not see certain videos of Chansley in the Capitol building until Carlson aired them.

“The government knew through three hearings, when we begged and pleaded to get this man out of solitary confinement, literally falling into an abyss mentally, and through each of those three hearings, that government assistant U.S. Attorney, knew the most important aspect of that hearing was that Jake was not violent,” Albert Watkins, Chansley’s former defense attorney, told Carlson, a co-founder of the Daily Caller and honorary board member of the Daily Caller News Foundation.

Carlson aired video of the riot Monday night that showed Capitol Police officers escorting one protestor, the “QAnon shaman” through the halls of the building. Republican Rep. Kevin McCarthy of California, the speaker of the house provided Carlson access to over 41,000 hours of video footage of the Capitol riot, Axios reported.

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“The government knew. They knew that Jake had walked around with all these police officers. They had that video footage. I didn’t get it,” Watkins said. “It wasn’t disclosed to me. It wasn’t provided to me. I requested it. I filed the requisite pleadings for it. Whether I did or not, they had a duty, an absolute duty, with zero discretion to provide it to me so that I could share it with my client.”

George Washington University law professor Jonathan Turley tweeted that Chansley’s current attorney, Bill Shipley, also had not seen the videos. Prosecutors are required to turn over potentially exculpatory evidence, according to a 7-2 Supreme Court ruling in Brady v. Maryland.

“This is about our justice system being so compromised, the very integrity and core of that which we wore as a badge of honor for the entirety of our nation’s history has been rendered a vile disgusting mess by a Department of Justice that was running amok, and they didn’t share the video of my client, the footage of my client, with nine officers surrounding him peacefully, wandering about, trying to help him, trying to get him access to the Senate chamber,” Watkins told Carlson. “They didn’t because it didn’t fit their narrative. And but for you disclosing it, I don’t know where we’d be.”

The Department of Justice did not immediately respond to a request for comment from the DCNF.

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