An Iowa man accused of participating in the Jan. 6 riot at the Capitol may end up back in jail because he wanted to watch MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell’s “cyber symposium.”
Doug Jensen of Des Moines, Iowa, violated a condition of his home-monitoring release which prohibited him from from using the internet so he could watch online content promoting unfounded fraud allegations about the 2020 election, Iowa Starting Line reported, citing federal court documents. Jensen was released from jail in Washington, D.C., July 13, into his wife’s custody only to be discovered watching content on the video streaming site Rumble Aug. 13, according to a court filing.
Jensen is accused by prosecutors of leading a mob after Capitol Police Officer Eugene Goodman on Jan. 6 while carrying a knife in his pocket.
Jensen admitted to the court officer that he’d spent two days watching Lindell’s symposium, at which Lindell promised to deliver evidence that the 2020 election had been rigged against former President Donald Trump by actors from China and elsewhere in the world.
Mike Lindell noted tonight that when speaking about Dominion Voting Systems, he now has to use the word “allegedly” while throwing up air quotes, per his lawyer’s request.
— Zachary Petrizzo (@ZTPetrizzo) August 19, 2021
Lindell has been one of the foremost proponents of false claims that the 2020 election was rife with fraud and that Trump was the rightful winner. He is being sued by voting machine manufacturer Dominion for defaming the company and its leadership. (RELATED: Fact-Checking MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell’s ‘Absolute Proof’ Election Fraud Special)
Jensen was a self-described follower of QAnon, and wore a “Q” shirt to the Capitol on Jan. 6. In arguing for his release from jail in the nation’s capital, Jensen’s lawyer said his client had been deceived by the “conspiracy theories” and now “that he bought into a pack of lies.”
The government says this violation of the conditions of his release proves that was a lie: “Jensen’s swift violation confirms what the Government and this Court suspected all along: that Jensen’s alleged disavowal of QAnon was just an act; that his alleged epiphany inside the D.C. Jail was merely self-advocacy; and that, at the end of the day, Jensen will not abandon the misguided theories and beliefs that led him to menacingly chase U.S. Capitol Police Officer Eugene Goodman up the Senate staircase on January 6, 2021,” read the government’s motion to revoke his release.
“He has proven that not even six months in jail will deter him from returning to the theories that led him to commit an assault against a federal officer on January 6, 2021. Contrary to what Jensen claimed at his bond hearing, he is still very much bought into QAnon’s ‘pack of lies,'” the motion continued. (RELATED: Mike Lindell Reportedly Thrown Out Of Republican Governors Association Conference)
Jensen initially alleged that the phone he was using to watch Lindell belonged to his daughter, and that he did not know the password needed to unlock it, but minutes later unlocked it anyway for the court officer, according to the court motion. He also alleged that his wife left the news on for him when she left for work, despite her swearing to the court she would notify the government if her husband violated his release conditions. Prosecutors argued this is sufficient evidence that Jensen cannot remain out of jail until his trial.