What happened to the key figures behind the US Capitol riots?

Four years after the January 6 Capitol riot shocked the US and the world, former and President-elect Donald Trump is preparing for his return to the White House.

More than 1,580 rioters have been criminally indicted since January 6, 2021, when an angry mob of Trump supporters stormed the US Capitol building in an attempt to stop Congress from certifying the election for Joe Biden.

Trump was indicted for inciting an insurrection, but the court proceedings were dropped after he won the November 2024 election. Over 900 insurrectionists have been sentenced and more than half of them have been sent to prison since.

But Trump has vowed to pardon at least some of them shortly after he is sworn in as the country’s 47th president on Inauguration Day on January 20. As the nation remains divided on January 6, here is what has happened to some of the key figures from that unprecedented day:

QAnon Shaman

Jacob Chansley, nicknamed ‘QAnon Shaman’ for donning a horned fur headdress and carrying an American flag and painting his face to match it, became a face of the Capitol riot.

Chansley was one of the first 30 insurrectionists to break into the Capitol Building. He snapped photos of himself on the Senate chamber dais and called then-Vice President Mike Pence a ‘traitor’. He was arrested several days after the riot and indicted on six charges.

The believer in conspiracy theories including QAnon reached a deal and pleaded guilty to one count of obstruction in November 2021. He received one of the longest sentences – 41 months in prison.

However in March 2023, he was released from federal prison and taken to a reentry center due to his good behavior behind bars, according to his lawyer Albert Watkins.

‘Mr Chansley can now move forward with his life,’ Watkins said at the time.

Chansley was freed from a halfway house in May 2023 and officially released from custody. He was ‘appropriately free to continue in his peaceful quest to heal’, Watkins said.

Stewart Rhodes

Far-right extremist group Oath Keepers’ founder Stewart Rhodes was sentenced in May 2023 to 18 years in prison for orchestrating the Capitol riot. He was the first indivdual to be convicted of seditious conspiracy around the insurrection and it was the longest sentence at the time.

The judge decided that Rhodes’ actions constituted terrorism, which was another first in an insurrection case.

‘You are smart, you are charismatic and compelling and frankly that’s what makes you dangerous,’ US District Judge Amit Mehta told Rhodes.

‘The moment you are released, whenever that may be, you will be ready to take up arms against your government.’

Last month, Mehta brought up Rhodes, who is serving his term, while sentencing another Oath Keepers member who pleaded guilty to seditious conspiracy.

‘The notion that Stewart Rhodes could be absolved of his actions is frightening and ought to be frightening to anyone who cares about democracy in this country,’ the judge said.

Kelly Meggs

Kelly Meggs, the leader of the Florida chapter of the Oath Keepers, was sentenced for seditious conspiracy among other charges on the same day as the group’s founder Rhodes in May 2023. Meggs received a lighter sentence of 12 years in prison as well as three years of supervised release.

Meggs and other Oath Keepers members and affiliates proceeded in a ‘stack’ formation into the Capitol Building as Rhodes coordinated the mob from the outside, according to prosecutors.

After his sentencing, Meggs was blamed by his own wife, Connie Meggs who herself was sentenced to 15 months in prison for her role in the milita’s conspiracy to obstruct Congress.

‘I was trusting my husband to keep us safe,’ Connie told Judge Mehta during her sentencing hearing in August 2023, according to WUSA9. ‘He’s put our whole family through hell.’

Kelly’s wife also called his influence on her and others ‘poisonous’.

Timothy Hale-Cusanelli

Timothy Hale-Cusanelli, an Army reservist from New Jersey, was one of the first insurrectionists to breach the Capitol Building. He commanded fellow rioters to ‘advance’ on the Capitol and continued to direct them once inside, according to the US Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia.

During his Capitol riot criminal proceedings, Hale-Cusanelli was described by federal prosecutors as a ‘Nazi sympathizer’ and ‘white supremacist’ who told coworkers at a naval weapons that ‘Hitler should have finished the job’.

Hale-Cusanelli was sentenced in September 2022 to four years in prison for felony and misdemeanor charges. During the hearing, he apologized to Capitol Police and Congress and said his ‘behavior that day was unacceptable’ and that he disgraced his country and uniform.

He managed to secure release from custody in December 2023, per the Bureau of Prisons.

Last summer, Hale-Cusanelli spoke at two events at Trump’s golf club in Bedminster, New Jersey. He addressed a Patriot Freedom Project fundraiser in June and was given an award for promoting God, family and country’ in August.

The Trump campaign at the time seemed to distance itself from Hale-Cusanelli, with one official telling NPR that Trump is ‘not even aware of this individual’.

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