Prompt Jail-Time For Trump Crazed Insurrectionist Requested By Prosecutors

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Federal prosecutors have requested that Capitol rioter Douglas Jensen be sent back to jail ahead of his trial after he was caught in violation of the terms of his release from custody. During the January riot, Jensen led the crowd that chased Capitol Police officer Eugene Goodman up a flight of stairs near the Senate chamber, and he spent months in jail before getting released in July under strict parameters. These rules included a prohibition on Jensen using internet-connected devices — but a court officer who showed up at Jensen’s residence found him listening to news on a platform called Rumble via an internet-connected iPhone. Jensen also admitted to spending parts of two days watching a conference put on by MyPillow founder/ CEO Mike Lindell to promote election-related conspiracy theories.

The nonsensical election claims that Lindell used that conference to promote were exactly what originally inspired the Capitol riot in which Jensen participated. A lawyer for Jensen previously claimed that his client, who’d characterized himself as a QAnon adherent, acknowledged “that he bought into a pack of lies,” but prosecutors pointed out in their new request for his detention that such does not seem to actually be the case. As Assistant US Attorney Hava Mirell put it, “Jensen’s swift violation confirms what the Government and this Court suspected all along: that Jensen’s alleged disavowal of QAnon was just an act; that his alleged epiphany inside the D.C. Jail was merely self-advocacy; and that, at the end of the day, Jensen will not abandon the misguided theories and beliefs that led him to menacingly chase U.S. Capitol Police Officer Eugene Goodman up the Senate staircase on January 6, 2021.”

In light of the specific fact that Jensen was watching that conference put on by Mike Lindell, authorities characterized his violation of his release conditions as “egregious,” with Mirell adding that Jensen “has proven that not even six months in jail will deter him from returning to the conspiracy theories that led him to commit an assault against a federal officer on January 6, 2021.” Jensen’s current charges include obstruction of a law enforcement officer during a civil disorder, and a status conference in his case had been set for September. In the meantime, a lawyer for Jensen is on track to file a response early next week to the government’s request for his detention, according to Buzzfeed News reporter Zoe Tillman. At what point that the court might decide on the government’s request isn’t immediately clear.