QAnon supporter who chased police officer up Capitol stairs charged in federal court

An Iowa supporter of the far-right QAnon conspiracy theory has been charged in connection with the deadly riot at the U.S. Capitol last week, with a federal charging document alleging he chased a police officer up a flight of stairs.

In the document, an FBI agent alleges that Douglas Jensen, of Des Moines, Iowa, who turned himself in to the Des Moines Police Department on Friday, was one of the first people to force his way into the Capitol. Jensen, the document states, disregarded multiple orders by an officer to stop and put his hands up, instead and “led the crowd toward the officer in a menacing manner, causing the officer to retreat and repeat his commands.”

Video footage cited by the FBI depicts Jensen, wearing a “Q” T-shirt, leading a crowd of people toward the officer, who retreats up a flight of stairs toward the Senate chamber in search of backup.

Special agent Julie Williams wrote that Jensen deliberately positioned himself as spearheading the mob, writing, “he wanted to have his t-shirt seen on video so that ‘Q’ could ‘get the credit.’ ”

Jensen’s brother William Routh, a resident of Clarksville, Ark., told The Associated Press over the weekend that he had long warned his brother about the conspiracy theory, which asserts President Trump is secretly using his office to battle satanist pedophiles. Numerous crimes and acts of violence have been linked to the movement, including the fatal shooting of the alleged boss of the Gambino Mafia family.

“I did not believe in QAnon and I told him to be careful what he listens to because no one knows what QAnon is. Nobody knows who is Q, but I don’t know where he is getting his information,” Routh said.

Jensen, who was fired last week from an Iowa masonry contractor, has a detention hearing scheduled for next week.