By Kate Payne, Iowa Public Radio News
A grand jury has indicted alleged U.S. Capitol rioter Doug Jensen on six federal charges for his role in the attack on the seat of the nation’s government. The Iowa resident was photographed extensively during the riot, wearing a QAnon T-shirt and apparently chasing a police officer.
Forty-one year old Doug Jensen of Des Moines made his first appearance in federal court Tuesday, via a video feed from the Polk County jail.
He faces six federal charges for his alleged role in the attack on the Capitol by a mob of pro-Trump extremists, including: civil disorder; assaulting, resisting or impeding certain officers or employees; entering and remaining in a restricted building; disorderly and disruptive conduct in a restricted building; violent entry and disorderly conduct in a Capitol building; and parading, demonstrating or picketing in a Capitol building.
Photos and videos of Jensen inside the Capitol during the siege were widely circulated, with the French newspaper Le Monde running an image of Jensen on its front page.
Images of Jensen are among the most recognizable of the attack, showing him confronting police officers while wearing a T-shirt emblazoned with a large Q, representing the baseless conspiracy theory QAnon, which claims the government is run by a cabal of devil-worshipping pedophiles.
In one video recorded by Huffington Post journalist Igor Bobic, Jensen appears to lead a crowd of rioters in advancing on a lone Black officer despite his orders to them to stay back, forcing the officer to retreat as the group apparently chases him up a set of stairs, just outside the Senate chambers.
WATCH: The moment when protesters first got into the U.S. Capitol building from the first floor and made their way outside the Senate chamber. (: Huffington Post/@igorbobic) pic.twitter.com/CkAVexDtkf
— CBS This Morning (@CBSThisMorning) January 6, 2021
According to statements in a court filing by FBI Special Agent Julie Williams, Jensen turned himself in to the Des Moines Police Department on Jan. 8 because “he thought he was in trouble.”
Court documents say Jensen voluntarily submitted to a recorded interview with DMPD and FBI officers, in which he admitted to being the individual in a video published by The Guardian and “specifically admitted” to chasing the officer, Eugene Goodman of the Capitol Police Department.
Goodman has since been hailed a “hero” for managing to lead the group of rioters away from the Senate at the exact moment that officers were scrambling to secure the doors to the chamber as lawmakers shelter in place inside, according to reporting by the Washington Post.
According to a court filing, Jensen said he “intentionally positioned himself” to be among the first people inside the Capitol because he was wearing the QAnon shirt and wanted to be filmed so that “Q” could “get the credit”.
There were a number of QAnon adherents within the mob that stormed the Capitol, according to reporting by the Associated Press. The FBI had previously labeled the conspiracy theory a “domestic terror threat” due to its potential to incite extremist violence.
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