A man who stormed the US Capitol while in Viking garb has been moved to another jail after a judge ordered authorities to provide him with organic food while he is in custody.
Jacob Chansley, 33, was transferred to a Virginia facility after his lawyer argued his client had gone nine days without eating because organic food was not served at the jail in Washington.
A judge ordered corrections officials to provide the special diet.
Mr Chansley had lost 9kg since being transferred from Arizona to Washington last week, his lawyer, Albert Watkins, told the judge.
Mr Chansley – who caught the eye during the insurrection sporting face paint, no shirt and a furry hat with horns – calls himself the “QAnon Shaman”.
He considers eating organic food to be part of his “shamanic belief system and way of life”, the lawyer said.
Food with unnatural chemicals “would act as an ‘object intrusion’ onto his body and cause serious illness,” an emergency motion filed on Wednesday (local time) stated.
On Thursday, US District Judge Royce Lamberth said the District of Columbia Department of Corrections had asked for Mr Chansley to be moved because they could not honour the court’s order to feed him organic food.
The judge said jail officials in nearby Alexandria could accommodate the special diet.
Mr Chansley was indicted on civil disorder, obstruction, disorderly conduct and other charges for his role in the riot at the Capitol on January 6.
He has since expressed regret about his actions.
“He has come to grasp that fact that the former president really didn’t love him and that all the bullshit about Trump’s army and all the social media-driven conspiracy theories led to a lot of the vulnerability,” Mr Watkins told The Daily Beast.
“Has my client gone through a wholesale repudiation on his previous beliefs? No. It’s part of an ongoing process. But he has recognised his role and my client has bellied up and realised he needs to do right by his country.”
“As part of this process, he is compelled to address a lot of things he has believed in the past from what I would call a propaganda machine.””
Mr Chansley was among a group of hundreds of pro-Trump supporters who charged past outnumbered police officers and stormed the Capitol as Congress was meeting to vote to certify Joe Biden’s electoral win.
-with agencies
