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DOJ says Capitol rioters intended to 'capture and assassinate' elected officials
Photo by Win McNamee/Getty Images

(Update) DOJ says Capitol rioters intended to 'capture and assassinate' elected officials

Horrific

Update: Hours after this story was first published, Justice Department prosecutors asked to strike the language from their court filing asserting that "the intent of the Capitol rioters was to capture and assassinate elected officials in the United States Government."

A Justice Department court filing has revealed a plan that rioters purportedly designed to "capture and assassinate" elected officials during last week's raid on the U.S. Capitol.

Federal prosecutors in the filing asked an Arizona judge to detain Jacob Chansley, an Arizona man who was pictured wearing face and body makeup and buffalo horns while standing at Vice President Mike Pence's desk in the Senate.

Chansley is set to appear in a federal court on Friday.

What are the details?

The FBI, according to the DOJ, investigated Chansley, who reportedly left a note on the vice president's desk staying that "it's only a matter of time, justice is coming."

A portion of the federal prosecutors' Thursday filing states, "Strong evidence, including Chansley's own words and actions at the Capitol, supports that the intent of the Capitol rioters was to capture and assassinate elected officials in the United States government."

According to a Friday report from Reuters, prosecutors said the charges against Chansley "involve active participation in an insurrection attempting to violently overthrow the United States government and that Chansley is a serious flight risk.

"Chansley has spoken openly about his belief that he is an alien, a higher being, and he is here on Earth to ascend to another reality," prosecutors added in the filing.

He also reportedly phoned the FBI after the riots and told them that he was "glad he sat in the vice president's chair because Vice President Pence is a child-trafficking traitor."

Seeking a pardon

A lawyer for Chansley is reportedly seeking a pardon from President Donald Trump for his client's role in the U.S. Capitol raid.

Chansley has allegedly stated that he "accepted the president's invitation" to march on the U.S. Capitol "with good intentions."

Chansley's attorney, Albert Watkins, issued a statement Thursday on his client, saying that he should be pardoned.

"My client had heard the oft-repeated words of President Trump," Watkins said about the incident. "The words and invitation of a president are supposed to mean something. Given the peaceful and compliant fashion in which Mr. Chansley comported himself, it would be appropriate and honorable for the president to pardon Mr. Chansley and other like-minded, peaceful individuals who accepted the president's invitation with honorable intentions."

Watkins concluded, "Mr. Chansley is an American; he served honorably in the US military. He has zero criminal history. He is a lover of nature, routinely practices meditation, is an active practicer of yoga, and eats only organic food. He took seriously the countless messages of President Trump. He believed in President Trump. Like tens of millions of other Americans, Chansley felt — for the first time in his life — as though his voice was being heard."

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