Jake Angeli: What we know about the ‘QAnon shaman’ who stormed the US Capitol
The horned man is an actor from Arizona who believes in the QAnon conspiracy theory
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Your support makes all the difference.Republicans attempting to deflect responsibility for the US Capitol insurrection on Wednesday have advanced a conspiracy theory that antifa - not Trump supporters - were to blame for the incident, even sharing a photo of a strange looking man wearing furs and a horned helmet and alleging he was a paid actor at a Black Lives Matter rally.
The Republicans who have advanced that theory are incorrect.
The man in horns and fur who was seen in numerous images from the Capitol Wednesday is a 32-year-old man named Jake Angeli.
Mr Angeli is a pro-Trump adherent of the QAnon conspiracy theory, and is sometimes called the "QAnon Shaman" according to the Arizona Republic.
The man has been spotted at numerous protests and rallies over the last year, often in costume, and always in support of Mr Trump.
In February, Mr Angeli was photographed holding a sign that read "Q Sent Me."
AZCentral, the Arizona Republic's web presence, reported that Mr Angeli shouted to passerby "You all know who Q is?" and told them that Q was "a government agent who wanted to 'take the country back' from pedophiles and globalists."
A profile from Backstage.com shows that Mr Angeli was at one point looking for acting work.
Cari Kelemen, a right-wing YouTuber, shared images of Mr Angeli on Twitter from a Black Lives Matter protest in Arizona earlier in the year and a climate rally, pointing out that he was an actor in an attempt to deflect blame for the riot off of Trump supporters.
"Trump supporters don't usually attend 'climate activism' events. The guy is an actor. Who knows what side he's on?" she wrote.
She was one of many conservatives who attempted to pin the blame for the insurrection on antifa or other alleged outside interlopers. Sarah Palin made similar claims on Fox News, and Rep. Matt Gaetz even repeated the unsubstantiated conspiracy theory in the House chamber during the Congressional vote tally.
However, based on his own signs, photos of him on social media posing with individuals like Mr Trump's lawyer Rudy Giuliani, and reporting from his hometown, there is no reason to assume Mr Angeli is anything other than a Trump supporter from Arizona who flew to DC and stormed the Capitol building alongside others loyal to the president.
Mr Angeli has called himself a "multi-dimensional or hyper dimensional being" and claims he can "see into these other higher dimensions that these entities - these pedophiles, these rapists, these really high up people ... that they can almost hide in the shadows in."
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