A federal judge has ordered a jail in Washington D.C. to provide Jacob Chansley aka the QAnon Shaman with organic food after he went on a hunger strike.
D.C. Circuit Court Judge Royce Lamberth, granted an emergency motion filed by Chansley’s attorney Albert Watkins on Wednesday saying his client was wasting away because he wasn’t eating. Chansley has lost more than 20 pounds, court documents say.
Watkins says nonorganic food conflicts with Chansley’s shamanistic religious beliefs and if he eats it he’ll suffer from a “debilitating” bacterial response, resulting in dehydration.
Lawyers for the D.C. jail where Chansley is being held said they could find no requirement for organic food in Shamanism.
But, Watkins said his client’s belief is legit because he was willing to fast for more than a week.
“Imagine going without food for nine-plus days,” Watkins told Forbes. “It is not up to a D.C. employee, a public servant with D.C. Department of Corrections, to reconfigure those faiths which are recognized by our government.”
Chansley has been charged with knowingly entering or remaining in a restricted building or grounds without lawful authority and violent entry and disorderly conduct on Capitol grounds.
He pleaded not guilty at an arraignment in a Washington federal court on Friday.
Chansley was relocated to D.C. last week after his arrest in January. Since D.C.’s city-run jail declined to continue the Phoenix jail’s practice of feeding Chansley organic food, he has gone hungry for over a week.
