A US district judge ordered Capitol rioter Doug Jensen to return to jail after he broke the conditions of his pre-trial release to watch MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell’s “cyber symposium” of election conspiracies, according to Insider.
Jensen, 41 was among the first members of the pro-Trump mob to push his way inside the United States Capitol building wearing a ‘Q T-shirt’ and confronted Capitol Police officer Eugene Goodman.
He was charged with seven federal crimes including assaulting, resisting or impeding certain officers; obstruction of a law enforcement officer during a civil disorder; and entering and remaining in a restricted building.
Jensen spent six months in jail before he successfully petitioned a judge to grant him pre-trail release in July.
Jensen’s attorneys argued at the time that he had rejected his former beliefs in the QAnon conspiracy theory. Though D.C. District Judge Timothy Kelly did not believe he abandoned the belief in the far-right conspiracy that led him to participate in the Jan. 6 riot, he granted Jensen release under the condition that he could not access the internet or any internet-connected devices.
Two weeks after he was released a pre-trial services officer caught him in his garage streaming a program on a Wi-Fi-enabled iPhone.
Prosecutors said in their brief that Jensen claimed the phone belonged to his daughter. He also claimed his wife turned on the news before she left for work. He later admitted that he had streamed Lindell’s two-day ‘Cyber Symposium’ promoting baseless allegations of widespread fraud in the November election.
“Jensen managed to violate one of the most difficult-to-enforce conditions in the most egregious way imaginable,” prosecutors wrote. “He 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.”
Christopher Davis, Jensen’s attorney argued that his client is not dangerous and likened his “compulsion” to see Lindell’s bizarre symposium to addiction.
“He’s not out there beating people with poles. He doesn’t have explosive materials on his computer,” Davis said. “This man has some issues he needs to come to grips with. Apparently, he hasn’t come to grips with them yet.”
Judge Kelly who was skeptical of Jensen’s transformation in the first place agreed with prosecutors and ordered that Jensen be sent back to jail to await trial.
“It’s clear that he has not experienced the transformation his lawyer described, that he has continued to seek out those conspiracy theories that led to his conduct on January 6, and that he violated the terms of his release in the process,” Kelly said.
