Arizona horned rioter to be provided organic food, judge orders

PHOENIX (AP) — A judge on Wednesday ordered corrections authorities to provide organic food to an Arizona man accused of participating in the insurrection at the U.S. Capitol while sporting face paint, no shirt and a furry hat with horns.

The order came after a lawyer for defendant Jacob Chansley complained that his client had gone the past nine days without eating because organic food isn’t served at the Washington jail where he’s housed.

Chansley has lost 20 pounds since being transferred from Arizona to Washington last week, said his attorney, Albert Watkins. Chansley, who calls himself the “QAnon Shaman,” considers eating organic food to be part of his “shamanic belief system and way of life,” the lawyer 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.

During a hearing in Washington, U.S. District Judge Royce Lamberth granted Chansley’s request to accommodate his diet.

Prosecutors said Chansley 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,” according to court records.