A man seen wearing a “Trust the Plan,” “Q,” and “Where We Go One We Go All” shirt on the front lines of a mob that chased Capitol Police Officer Eugene Goodman inside the Capitol on Jan. 6 is seeking to be released from pretrial detention, claiming he was “a victim” of nefarious false conspiracy theories he no longer believes.
According to the attorney for Doug Jensen, Jensen did not travel to Washington, D.C. on Jan. 6 to partake in a violent insurrection, but merely “to observe what he thought was going to be ‘The Storm,’” described as the culmination of all the far-right conspiracy theories about the election being stolen from Donald Trump.
“Doug Jensen was not an intended part of any group or mob at any time that day,” the motion stated. “He simply went to observe ‘The Storm.’ He was at the front of the crowd, but in no way leading anyone. He was in front of everyone for the now disclosed silly reason to get Q recognized for ‘The Storm’ that was about to take place.”
Jensen’s attorney further asserted that the infamous video, which showed his client wearing a QAnon shirt and leading a faction of the mob as it chased after Officer Goodman, only bolstered the claim that Jensen was not part of any concerted effort, noting he moved “irrespective of the others.”
Here’s the scary moment when protesters initially got into the building from the first floor and made their way outside Senate chamber. pic.twitter.com/CfVIBsgywK
— Igor Bobic (@igorbobic) January 6, 2021
Following his arrest in January, FBI Special Agent Tyler Johnson noted that Jensen “said he went to D.C. to receive big news from Donald Trump,” and claimed to still be a steadfast believer of QAnon. Those theories, in short, purport that the world is run by a cabal of Satanist pedophiles which Trump was ordained to take down.
Jensen allegedly told Special Agent Johnson that he believed Mike Pence and several members of Congress were secretly going to be arrested on Jan. 6, and even asked if law enforcement officials could “let me in on that if you know those arrests are real.” Jensen also admitted to having a knife on him when he was inside the Capitol, though he claimed it was just his work pocketknife which he had on him “for protection.”
“As misguided as he was, he believed he was a patriot waiting to observe the events anticipated by ‘The Storm,’” the motion stated. “To be certain, Jensen refused to obey Officer Goodman’s order to stop and leave. And he did continue to follow him up the steps inside the Capitol. But Jensen neither threatened physical harm to anyone nor did he destroy any property.”
The motion further portrayed Jensen as the product of a “dysfunctional childhood” that grew to become a devoted family man and who became a “true believer” in QAnon because its stated mission was to take down a society of pedophiles. According to the filing, Jensen spent much of his formative years in foster care because his mother was “a diagnosed paranoid schizophrenic who was institutionalized over 30 times” when he was a child.
Jensen became a “digital solider” for “Q,” the attorney said.
“Doug Jensen 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,” his attorney wrote. “For reasons he does not even understand today, he became a ‘true believer’ and was convinced he doing a noble service by becoming a digital soldier for ‘Q.’ Maybe it was mid-life crisis, the pandemic, or perhaps the message just seemed to elevate him from his ordinary life to an exalted status with an honorable goal. In any event, he fell victim to this barrage of internet sourced info and came to the Capitol, at the direction of the President of the United States, to demonstrate that he was a ‘true patriot.’”
Jensen faces seven charges in connection with the Capitol siege, including disrupting the orderly conduct of government, violent entry, and obstructing a law enforcement officer.
Read the full filing below.
[Image via SAUL LOEB/AFP via Getty Images]
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