Using the Jan. 6 tapes aired by Tucker Carlson, the self-proclaimed "America's Shaman" sought to have his guilty plea deal voided due to "newly discovered" evidence, but a federal judge rejected Jacob Chansley's request Thursday.
"Chansley's arguments are without merit," U.S. District Judge Royce C. Lamberth in Washington, D.C., wrote in his ruling.
"Mr. Chansley has not made a substantial showing of the denial of a constitutional right. The Court will therefore decline to issue a certificate of appealability for Mr. Chansley's claims.
"For these reasons, the court concludes that Mr. Chansley's motion and the record in his case do not show his entitlement to relief."
Chansley was the famed Jan. 6 "Shaman" who wore a headdress and horns while being ushered through the U.S. Capitol building by police on Jan. 6, 2021. The video released publicly earlier this year, as permitted by House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., showed "newly discovered" evidence Chansley was not forcing his way through the building to the Senate chambers.
Video showed police checking locked doors and ushering him around.
But Lamberth rejected Carlson's release of the alleged exonerating evidence.
"The court would be remiss if it did not address the ill-advised television program of March 6, 2023," the ruling read. "Not only was the broadcast replete with misstatements and misrepresentations regarding the events of Jan. 6, 2021 too numerous to count, the host explicitly questioned the integrity of this court — not to mention the legitimacy of the entire U.S. criminal justice system with inflammatory characterizations of cherry-picked videos stripped of their proper context.
"In so doing, he called on his followers to 'reject the evidence of [their] eyes and ears,' language resembling the destructive, misguided rhetoric that fueled the events of Jan. 6 in the first place.
"The court finds it alarming that the host's viewers throughout the nation so readily heeded his command. But this court cannot and will not reject the evidence before it. Nor should the public."
Also, Lamberth ruled, Chansley's own public regret of having pleaded guilty was a part of the reasoning for his ruling.
"The court is disappointed to learn that, through his filings and public statements, Mr. Chansley has recanted the contrition displayed at his sentencing nearly two years ago," Lamberth wrote. "Such an about-face casts serious doubt on the veracity of any of Mr. Chansley's claims, here or elsewhere."
Chansley was sentenced to 41 months in prison for his Jan. 6 actions. He was moved to a halfway house in late March of this year, after being in prison for around 27 of the 41 months — including 11 months in solitary confinement.
Eric Mack ✉
Eric Mack has been a writer and editor at Newsmax since 2016. He is a 1998 Syracuse University journalism graduate and a New York Press Association award-winning writer.
© 2025 Newsmax. All rights reserved.