New Jan. 6 footage shows Grassley just feet away from rioters, Chansley

Newly released footage from the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol shows Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) just feet away from rioters, including the now infamous “QAnon Shaman.”

The senator, who was third in line for the presidency at the time, can be seen as he is ushered away while a uniformed officer blocks a hallway between him and the rioters, according to the footage released by the Justice Department

Just minutes earlier, the video showed the rioters smashing and crawling through the windows of the Capitol.

The footage comes from the Justice Department’s case against “QAnon Shaman,” also known as Jacob Chansley, who was sentenced to 41 months in prison in 2021 for his role in the riot.

The new video comes after Fox News host Tucker Carlson last week used security footage showing Chansley on Jan. 6 to argue that the incident was “mostly peaceful chaos.” Carlson received exclusive access to around 44,000 hours of Capitol security footage from Jan. 6 from House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.).

However, federal prosecutors hit back at Carlson in a court filing on Sunday, claiming that his presentation of the footage lacked context and only spanned about four minutes out of the hour that Chansley spent in the Capitol.

“The televised footage lacks the context of what occurred before and after the footage. Chansley entered the building as part of a violent crowd,” prosecutors said in the filing, which related Proud Boy Dominic Pezzola’s court case.

Pezzola, who is on trial for seditious conspiracy alongside four other members of the Proud Boys, had argued for a dismissal of charges based on Carlson’s footage.