Judge Orders 'QAnon Shaman' to Take Competency Exam

The man who wore no shirt, a fur-lined hat with horns, face paint, and carried a spear with a flag on it into the US Capitol Building during the Jan. 6 attack has been ordered to undergo a mental health evaluation. You may know Jacob Anthony Chansley as Jake Angeli or possibly as the QAnon shaman. He’s the one who requested organic food in prison for hard to parse religious beliefs, and has been characterized as having a “detachment from reality” by a DC federal judge. He’s been detained since January, but the exam will take place in a facility in Colorado he’s been housed at since June 10, the Hill reports.

At issue is whether Chansley is competent to stand trial, a question raised by his own lawyer. Albert Watkins, Chansley’s attorney, argued that months in prison have taken a mental health toll, the Washington Post reports. The case’s prosecutors did not raise any objection to the evaluation. This isn’t the first time that Chansley’s lawyer has questioned his client’s faculties. Watkins told Talking Points Memo that his client and some of the other Jan. 6 defendants “are people with brain damage.” (More QAnon stories.)