Last Updated on August 20, 2021
Federal prosecutors are demanding that Douglas Jensen, a January 6 defendant, be returned to prison after allegedly violating the terms of his pretrial release. Jensen was imprisoned from January 8 through July when a judge agreed to release him with strict guidelines, including a stipulation that Jensen was not allowed to use the internet. The government now wants him back in jail after it was revealed that he watched Mike Lindell’s cyber symposium.
“Less than one month (after release), Pretrial Services Officer Brandon Brown discovered Jensen, inside his garage, listening to the news on Rumble via a WiFi-connected phone,” federal prosecutors wrote in a filing. “Jensen eventually admitted to his Pretrial Services Officer that in the previous week, he had spent two weeks watching Mike Lindell’s cyber symposium.”
The filing was submitted by Channing Phillips, a federal prosecutor who previously served in the Obama administration. The document mentioned Q Anon extensively and argued that Jensen’s belief in “conspiracy theories” make him a danger to the community. “The Court need look no further than Jensen’s virtual attendance at a symposium dedicated to challenging the legitimacy of the 2020 election to know that Jensen will continue to let his loyalties to certain conspiracy theories prevail over his obligations to the Court and his family.”
According to Julie Kelly of American Greatness, both prosecutors and the judge focused heavily on Q Anon and Jensen’s belief in “conspiracy theories” at his bond hearing in June. “He’s not just a devotee, he’s a preacher,” prosecutors said in regards to Jensen’s belief in Q Anon. “This type of devotion doesn’t just go away. Even losing friends and families haven’t made Jensen lose his devotion to Q,” they added. Prosecutors spent 30 minutes talking about Q Anon and later said, “If he can be so easily manipulated, it should raise alarms.”
Federal prosecutors just spent about five minutes talking about Jensen's belief in QAnon as a reason why he should stay in jail.
— Julie Kelly 🇺🇸 (@julie_kelly2) June 24, 2021
Jensen is facing seven felony charges in relation to the events of January 6. He is being charged with aggravated assault, upgraded from simple assault, for “menacingly chasing Capitol Police Officer Eugene Goodman up a flight of stairs,” according to the filing. Jensen also had a pocketknife that he didn’t use, resulting in more felonies. Other charges include civil disorder, obstruction of an official proceeding and disorderly conduct in a Capitol building.
US District Judge Timothy Kelly, a Trump appointee, agreed to release Jensen to the strictest form of pretrial release. Jensen is on house arrest, required to wear an ankle monitor and cannot access the internet. Kelly paused several times during the bond hearing to assure everyone that he would never downplay “what happened on January 6” while applauding the “bravery” of officer Goodman. The judge also said that no one should take his decision to release Jensen as a sign that he’d show leniency at sentencing if Jensen is ultimately found guilty or pleads guilty.
“Jensen was given an extraordinary second chance when he was released from pretrial detention. He squandered that chance by swiftly violating the Court’s orders in order to return to the same pattern of conduct that led him to commit an aggravated assault on January 6, 2021,” wrote Phillips in the filing. “For these reasons, the Government respectfully requests that this Court revoke Jensen’s pretrial release.”
