An Iowa man accused of participating in the breach of the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6 was jailed again after getting caught using the internet.
There was “clear and convincing evidence” that Douglas Jensen accessed the internet on a cell phone on Aug. 13 and watched video of a cyber symposium related to the 2020 presidential election on a phone days before that, U.S. District Judge Timothy Kelly wrote in a Sept. 2 order.
Kelly in July let Jensen go free from jail, pending trial, but with certain conditions. Because accessing the internet violated one of those conditions, Jensen is headed back to prison.
According to prosecutors, Jensen was found by an officer alone, in his garage, using an iPhone to stream news from Rumble, a video platform, 30 days after his release.
Jensen offered a series of excuses regarding the violation of the terms of release before eventually admitting that he had spent two days that week watching a cyber symposium put on by MyPillow founder Mike Lindell.
Jensen’s lawyer told the court in a motion for his release that the man had been “a victim of numerous conspiracy theories that were being fed to him over the internet by a number of very clever people” and that he had not intended to, nor did he, commit violence on Jan. 6.
Jensen did become caught up in the QAnon movement, which revolves around a number of theories, but recognized while sitting in a jail cell in Washington that “he bought into a pack of lies,” according to the motion. Jensen had a “wakeup call” in jail and was prepared to comply with conditions set by the court to go home, be with his family, and work, the lawyer added.
After Jensen violated the conditions, prosecutors said 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 Jan. 6.
