From the QAnon Shaman to zip-tie guy: The most notable Capitol rioters and what happened to them
With the third anniversary of the 6 January insurrection at the Capitol looming, more than 1,230 people have been charged with federal crimes over their alleged part in the most serious breach of the building since the War of 1812.
Many are facing only minor charges, but others are in far more serious trouble – and among those already sentenced are some of the most familiar faces from the abundant footage of the day’s events.
As the hard work of identifying, arresting and prosecuting those involved in the riot continues, here’s what’s happened so far to some of the day’s most notorious figures.
Without question the most immediately recognisable member of the mob that entered the Capitol, Jacob Chansley – aka Jake Angeli, aka the QAnon Shaman – immediately became an icon of the insurrection thanks to his bare-chested, face-painted, horn-headed outfit.
A picture of him posing on the rostrum of the Senate chamber with a spear became one of the most iconic images from that day and his case soon became one of its most-watched.
Media attention focused heavily on Chansley’s “shamanic” beliefs as well as his demands for a special diet while in prison. Early on in legal proceedings, his psychological state became a key issue, with a judge denying him pre-trial release because of “a detachment from reality”. His lawyer attempted an insanity offence, saying in a widely condemned interview that the Capitol rioters “are people with brain damage, they’re f****** r*******, they’re on the goddamn spectrum”.
A psychological evaluation diagnosed Chansley with transient schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, depression and anxiety, but the court ruled him mentally competent to face charges.
After striking a deal to plead guilty, he was sentenced to almost three-and-a-half years in jail in November 2021.
He subsequently appealed the sentence, hiring a lawyer who previously represented teenage shooter and wannabe militiaman Kyle Rittenhouse but ending up serving time at the Federal Correctional Institution in Safford, Arizona, before released into the care of a halfway house on 28 May 2023 and finally freed two months later.
One of the most distinctively dressed rioters at the insurrection, Robert Scott Palmer’s “Florida for Trump” hat and stars-and-stripes outerwear earned him the nickname “Florida Flag Jacket” – the moniker used by online sleuths who collaborated to identify him and hundreds of others from the footage of the riot.
After accepting a plea deal, Palmer was sentenced on 17 December 2021 to five years in jail for assaulting police officers with objects including a fire extinguisher, a plank and a pole – actions well-documented on video. His was the longest sentence handed down to a rioter at that point, and he was the first to be charged with “assaulting, resisting or impeding certain officers using a dangerous weapon, inflicting bodily injury”.
His lawyers tried to argue for a shorter sentence based on the fact that he had been drawn to the riot by those inciting it, but judge Amy Berman Jackson was not swayed. “It`s true that the people who exhorted you and encouraged you and rallied you to go take action and to fight have not been charged,” she told him.
“The issue of who has been charged is not before me. You engaged in combat with those law enforcement officers. That’s what you’re being punished for. You have a point, maybe the people who planned 6 January haven’t been charged, but that’s not a reason for you to get a lower sentence.”
In the video of Palmer attacking police officers, a voice can be heard bellowing through a megaphone: “You are not going to take away our Trumpy bear! They are not going to take our Trumpy bear! They will not take away our Trumpy bear! We love you, President Trump!”
This is Gina Bisignano, a California beautician famously pictured with makeup streaming down her cheeks behind her aviator glasses after being hit with a chemical irritant.
After being arrested later in January, she was indicted by prosecutors for encouraging and helping others to smash windows; since then, she has pleaded guilty to six of seven charges under a plea deal, and has cooperated with investigators.
One of the most chilling images from the insurrection shows a man clad in combat-style clothes climbing over seats in the Senate visitors’ gallery with a handful of zip ties. In another picture, he is seen outside the Capitol accompanied by a middle-aged woman sporting what appears to be a protective vest.
The so-called “zip tie guy” is Eric Munchel – who filmed the attack himself – and the woman is his mother, Lisa Eisenhart. Both are facing multiple charges, among them bringing a Taser onto Capitol grounds.
Despite his ominously militaristic attire, Munchel’s lawyers have claimed that he only entered the Capitol to keep an eye on his mother, whom his video footage shows him following into the Capitol and into the Senate chamber while warning her: “Mom, be careful”.
