Rioters on Capitol Hill caused ‘horrible mayhem’: Former FBI agent
Former FBI deputy assistant director Danny Coulson provides insight into the violence at the U.S. Capitol.
The heavily painted man wearing a horned fur hat who made a spectacle of himself on the dais of the U.S. Senate during the storming of the Capitol has been identified as a QAnon supporter and fixture at far-right rallies in Arizona, according to a report.
Jake Angeli, 32, was seen posing in the chair occupied moments earlier by Vice President Mike Pence at the beginning of the election certification proceedings, which were halted when the riot began.
Supporters of President Trump are confronted by Capitol Police officers outside the Senate Chamber inside the Capitol, Wednesday, Jan. 6, 2021 in Washington. (AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta)
The shirtless conspiracy theorist – known as the "Q Shaman" – wore red, white and blue face paint as he brandished a spear from which hung an American flag.
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In 2020, Angeli told The Arizona Republic that he wears the headgear and paint to attract attention as he talks about QAnon, which claims that a vast network of powerful people are behind a large pedophile ring — including the viral "pizzagate" conspiracy that falsely claimed one such ring ran out of a Washington, DC, pizza shop.
In February 2020, he worked the crowd outside a rally in Phoenix for President Trump, holding up a sign that read, "Q sent me," the news outlet reported.
"The snowball has been rolling and it’s only getting bigger," Angeli said at the time. "We’re the mainstream now."
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Angeli told a reporter from the Globe and Mail of Toronto that police had stopped trying to block him and other Trump supporters and let them into the Capitol, according to The Arizona Republic.
He said police politely asked him to leave, according to the Canadian journalist.
Angeli, who took part in protests of the Arizona election results, also attended rallies to reopen businesses shuttered by the state government to prevent the spread of the coronavirus, the Republic reported.
He said he learned much of what he knows through online research – which included the 1991 book "Behold a Pale Horse" by Arizona writer William Copper – that involved shadowy groups such as the Illuminati, Trilateral Commission and Bilderberg group.
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"At a certain point, it all clicked in a way. Oh, my God. I see now the reality of what’s going on," he said, adding that the Q movement validated beliefs he had held as far back as 2016.
This article first appeared in the New York Post.
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