An Iowa man who was arrested for his alleged involvement in the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol said in a court motion this week that he “fell victim” to the QAnon conspiracy theory, which he now calls a “pack of lies.”
Douglas Jensen of Des Moines was arrested three days after the attack on the Capitol and faces seven charges. He was photographed confronting law enforcement in the Capitol and chasing an officer up a staircase, according to the Des Moines Register.
In a June 7 motion, Jensen’s attorney says the Iowa man no longer affirms the QAnon conspiracy that led him to the Capitol that day.
Jensen’s attorney describes QAnon as a conspiracy theory “alleging that a cabal of Satanic, cannibalistic pedophiles run a global child sex trafficking ring and conspired against former President Donald Trump during his term in office.”
“For reasons he does not even understand today, he became a ‘true believer’ and was convinced he was doing a noble service by becoming a digital soldier for ‘Q,’” the motion reads. “Maybe it was [a] mid-life crisis, the pandemic, or perhaps the message just seemed to elevate him from his ordinary life to an exalted status with an honorable goal. In any event, he fell victim to this barrage of internet-sourced info and came to the Capitol, at the direction of the President of the United States, to demonstrate that he was a ‘true patriot.’ Six months later, languishing in a D.C. Jail cell, locked down most of the time, he feels deceived, recognizing that he bought into a pack of lies.”
The QAnon conspiracy was “being fed to him over the internet by a number of very clever people, who were uniquely equipped with slight, if any, moral or social consciousness,” the motion says.
Jensen is a “blue-collar union laborer” and a “devoted father” with children.
“Jensen’s initial attraction to QANON was its stated mission to eliminate pedophiles from society,” the motion says. “A fiercely protective family man, this was a powerful theme for him to latch onto. This played into Jensen’s unique background. The product of a dysfunctional childhood, he spent the majority of his childhood in foster care.”
The motion asks the judge to release him from jail, saying Jensen wants to support his family.
“Perhaps most hurtful to him is that his family, whom he has always worked at least one if not two jobs [for], is now suffering extreme financial hardship as a result of his unanticipated detention,” the motion says. “He came to D.C. to support the president; he did not foresee the destruction of his family. This love of family is the anchor that has brought Doug Jensen full circle.”
Related:
Survey: White Evangelicals, Hispanic Protestants, Mormons Most Likely to Believe in QAnon
Photo courtesy: ©Getty Images/Cengiz Yar/Stringer
Michael Foust has covered the intersection of faith and news for 20 years. His stories have appeared in Baptist Press, Christianity Today, The Christian Post, the Leaf-Chronicle, the Toronto Star and the Knoxville News-Sentinel.
