This supporter of Donald Trump is among the rioters who invaded the Capitol on Wednesday.

-

Manuel Balce Ceneta / AP / SIPA

  • Jake Angeli, sometimes referred to as the “Q Shaman,” was pictured among rioters who stormed the Capitol on Wednesday in Washington.

  • A lawyer supporting Donald Trump argued that the protester would be an "antifa".

  • However, several sources show that

    Jake Angeli is a follower of the QAnon movement.

Photos of the man, shirtless, his face painted in the colors of the American flag, his shoulders and head covered in fur, toured the world after the Capitol, which houses the Senate and the House of Representatives, took was overrun by rioters on Wednesday. 

Supporters of Donald Trump, such as lawyer Lin Wood, have assured that this man, far from being a supporter of the outgoing president, was in fact an “antifa” who would have entered the building to sow chaos.

An assertion that echoes statements by Donald Trump who, during his presidency, repeatedly said that there was an "antifa" threat in the United States.

Lin Wood accompanied his tweet with a photo that allegedly showed the man at a rally in support of the Black Lives Matter movement, without providing any evidence that it was a manifestation of this movement.

Twitter has since suspended the lawyer's account.

Lin Wood and QAnon are backing the bus over the Q Shaman from today's riot, while the Q Shaman insists he isn't antifa.

pic.twitter.com/mLmpnFwLjQ

- Will Sommer (@willsommer) January 7, 2021

The false claim, relayed to another account, was retweeted more than 42,000.

The rioter is however well identified, in particular as being a follower of the QAnon movement, linked to a conspiracy theory according to which satanist pedophiles are plotting against Donald Trump.

FAKE OFF

According to

The Arizona Republic

, the man's name is Jake Angeli.

The newspaper describes him as a follower of this movement, which has been demonstrating regularly since at least 2019 in front of the Arizona Capitol.

He told the newspaper to wear this outfit to attract attention and then explain his theories.

Jake Angeli, 32, sporting horns and body paint, yells his thanks to President @realDonaldTrump and Q.



The latter is presumably a reference to QAnon, a controversial far-right group.

@azcentral pic.twitter.com/RJ990L0xA2

- BrieAnna J. Frank 🌵 (@brieannafrank) May 5, 2020

Eric Westervelt, a journalist for NPR, the American public radio, confirms that the man is a follower of the QAnon movement.

He explained that he interviewed him in November in Arizona at a demonstration in support of Donald Trump.

“He was telling dangerously delusional misinformation about the election and the Covid-19,” he said on Twitter.

Met this QAnon mass delusion supporter when covering pro Trump AZ elex protests in Nov. He was spewing dangerously delusional fur foil hat misinformation about the elex and Covid19, so of course I didn't put him on air.

Today he was part of the mob that invaded the Capitol @npr pic.twitter.com/2L1P3LUH11

- Eric Westervelt (@Ericnpr) January 7, 2021

Sometimes nicknamed "QChaman", Jake Angeli filmed himself in September with a "Q sent me" sign

shouting conspiracy theory in a mall.

The letter "Q" is an allusion to the alleged initiator of the theory.

On Wednesday, the man told a reporter from The

Globe and Mail

, a Canadian newspaper, that police let him out of the Senate chamber without arresting him.

I spoke with Jake Angeli, the QAnon guy who got inside the Senate chamber.

He said police eventually gave up trying to stop him and other Trump supporters, and let them in.

After a while, he said police politely asked him to leave and let him go without arrest

- Adrian Morrow (@AdrianMorrow) January 6, 2021

He himself seems to have denied Lin Wood's assertion, explaining on Twitter that he is not "antifa" or a supporter of the "Black Lives Matter" movement.

As for the photo which would show him at a demonstration in support of the latter, it has been truncated.

The entire photo shows him with a "Q sent me" sign.

The QAnon conspiracy theory emerged in 2017 on the 4Chan forum.

His followers think in particular that Donald Trump, helped by the military, is leading a battle against satanist pedophiles who are conspiring to overthrow him, recalls this Bellingcat article.

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