The attorney for alleged insurrectionist and “QAnon Shaman” Jacob Chansley says that his client and other accused Capitol rioters were uniquely vulnerable to being misled by former President Trump’s lies. “A lot of these defendants… they’re all fucking short-bus people,” Albert Watkins told Talking Points Memo. “These are people with brain damage, they’re fucking retarded... But they’re our brothers, our sisters, our neighbors, our coworkers—they’re part of our country. These aren’t bad people, they don’t have prior criminal history. Fuck, they were subjected to four-plus years of goddamn propaganda the likes of which the world has not seen since fucking Hitler.”

Watkins has unsuccessfully tried to have Chansley granted pretrial release on the basis of his unusual dietary needs, and his client having been fed misinformation by Trump. Some experts told Talking Points Memo that the emphasis on Trump’s role in inciting the riot may be a smart tactic for getting lighter sentences.