A judge on Wednesday ordered corrections authorities to provide organic food to an Arizona man who describes himself as a "QAnon Shaman" and has pleaded not guilty to charges related to his alleged participation in the U.S. Capitol riot while sporting face paint, no shirt and a furry hat with horns.
The order came after a defense attorney representing Jacob Chansley file an emergency motion claiming his client had gone the past nine days without eating because organic food isn’t served at the jail in Washington, D.C., where he remains held, Fox 8 reported.
Chansley has lost 20 pounds since being transferred from Arizona to Washington last week, his attorney, Albert Watkins, said in the motion.
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Chansley considers eating organic food to be part of his "shamanic belief system and way of life," and, as a part of his religious faith, believes eating non-organic food containing unnatural chemicals would act as an "object intrusion" on his body, Watkins said.
Three weeks ago, when he was jailed in Arizona on charges stemming from the Jan. 6. riot, Chansley went days without eating because the detention facility there didn’t offer organic food. The U.S. Marshals Service in Arizona said it "reached an appropriate course of action regarding the dietary needs of Jacob Chansley" but declined to say whether he had been given organic food.
In asking for organic food behind bars, Chansley made a religious liberty argument and said he has been following such a diet for eight years while practicing Shamanism. Lawyers representing the jail in D.C. said they could find no requirement for organic food in Shamanism, the St. Louis Post Dispatch reported.
In this Wednesday, Jan. 6, 2021 file photo, supporters of President Donald Trump, including Jacob Chansley, center with fur and horned hat, are confronted by Capitol Police officers outside the Senate Chamber inside the Capitol in Washington. A video showed Chansley leading others in prayer inside the Senate chamber. (AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta)
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In an order issued Wednesday evening, U.S. District Judge Royce Lamberth said corrections officials have made dietary religious exemptions for inmates who are Muslim and Jewish and couldn’t cite an instance when they denied such a request based on a perceived lack of religious merit. Lamberth said Chansley’s diet was based on his religious beliefs and that his willingness to go more than a week without food is strong evidence of the sincerity of those convictions.
Prosecutors say Chansley allegedly went into the Capitol carrying a U.S. flag attached to a wooden pole topped with a spear, ignored an officer’s commands to leave, went into the Senate chamber and wrote a threatening note to then-Vice President Mike Pence. Chansley told investigators he came to the Capitol "at the request of the president that all ‘patriots’ come to D.C. on January 6," court records state.
Chansley’s bid for organic food isn’t the first unusual request made by people who were charged in connection with the riot.
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Lawyers for Jenny Cudd, a florist and former mayoral candidate in the oil patch city of Midland, Texas, asked a judge for permission to take a four-day trip to Mexico’s Caribbean coast for a "work-related bonding retreat" with her colleagues and their spouses. They said the trip was prepaid and planned before the Capitol riot.
Cudd’s pretrial services officer didn’t object to the trip and prosecutors took no position on it, defense attorney Farheena Siddiqui wrote in the court filing. The judge has yet to rule on her request.
Fox News' Stephanie Pagones contributed to this report, as well as The Associated Press.
