Jacob Chansley, aka the QAnon Shaman was moved from a Washington D.C. lockup to a jail in Virginia on Thursday better suited to handle his request for an organic diet.
Chansley was transferred to the Alexandria Detention Center in Virginia after U.S. District Court Judge Royce Lamberth ruled that he was entitled to the organic food on religious grounds, during a hearing on Wednesday, Politico reports.
At Wednesday’s hearing, attorneys for Chansley argued that their client had not eaten since Jan. 25 and had lost more than 20 pounds.
He practices shamanism and believes “that non-organic food, which contains unnatural chemicals, would act as an ‘object intrusion’ onto his body and cause serious illness if he were to eat it,” according to an emergency motion filed by his lawyer.
Lawyers for the D.C. jail where Chansley was being held said they could find no requirement for organic food in Shamanism.
The D.C. jail was “unable to comply” with the judges directive to provide organic meals, so Chansley was moved to the Virginia jail.
“The Sheriff there has advised that the Alexandria Detention Center is willing and able to accommodate defendant’s dietary requests,” Lamberth wrote in a follow up order on Thursday.
A spokesperson for the Alexandria Sheriff’s office in Virginia confirmed that Chansley was transferred to the jail on Thursday and that they had discussed his dietary requirements with Aramark, the jail’s food service contractor.
Interestingly, Aramark also provides meals for the D.C. jail where Chansley was been held. A jail official told the court on Wednesday that the only religious meals permitted under the district’s contract were halal and kosher, according to Politico.
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.