Judge agrees to free QAnon believer charged in Capitol riot

A federal judge agreed on Tuesday to free an Iowa man from jail more than six months after his videotaped confrontation of a police officer inside the U.S. Capitol became one of the most menacing images of the Jan. 6 riots. U.S. District Judge Timothy Kelly said deciding whether to free Jensen from jail pending trial was a “close case,” but he ultimately agreed to release the Des Moines resident on house arrest with electronic location monitoring. The judge said he didn’t believe that Jensen could have coordinated with others or planned an attack in advance “when he had no basic understanding of where he even was that day.” Prosecutors said Jensen is a self-proclaimed “digital soldier” and “religious” adherent of QAnon, the conspiracy theory that has centered on the baseless belief that former President Donald Trump was secretly waging a campaign against a Satan-worshipping, child sex trafficking cabal of “deep state” enemies, Hollywood elites and Democratic foes. Defense attorney Christopher Davis said his client went to the Capitol to observe what QAnon promoters have prophesized as “The Storm,” the day when Trump’s enemies would be rounded up and executed. Jensen’s lawyer said his client “became a victim of numerous conspiracy theories that were being fed to him over the internet by a number of very clever people, who were uniquely equipped with slight, if any, moral or social consciousness.” “Six months later, languishing in a DC Jail cell, locked down most of the time, he feels deceived, recognizing that he bought into a pack of lies,” Davis wrote.