A right-wing conspiracy theorist from Iowa who was among the first to break into the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6 remained in custody Tuesday (1/19) after a court hearing where his attorneys asked a federal magistrate judge to let him go home until his trial.
Douglas A. Jensen, 41, appeared in court for a detention hearing via video from jail in Des Moines on Tuesday.
A grand jury indicted him on six counts, including obstructing law enforcement during a civil disorder, resisting Capitol Police officer Eugene Goodman, violently entering and remaining in a restricted building, and disorderly conduct.
Magistrate Judge Celeste Bremer said she would issue an order on Wednesday after considering arguments.
Assistant US attorney Virginia Bruner called an FBI agent to testify that Jensen, who has been seen widely in video coverage of the attack wearing a QAnon shirt in the front of a shouting mob taunting Capitol Police officer Eugene Goodman.
FBI Special Agent Tyler Johnson said Jensen in an interview two days after the incursion said he believed once inside the Capitol he and the others would witness the arrest of Vice President Mike Pence and members of Congress.
“He said he want to DC to receive big news from Donald Trump,” Johnson said adding that he specifically reference the storm which he believed was going to include the arrests of Pence and certain members of Congress.
“After they broke in thought the arrests were going to start,” Johnson said Jensen told him in the interview.
Jensen described himself to the FBI agent as a true believer in QAnon, the apocalyptic conspiracy theory that he follows. He said that for about four years he has spent hours on the computer after work reading the material from QAnon and similar websites.
Once Jensen returned to Des Moines from Washington and saw himself in the television coverage he told the agent he decided to walk six miles to the Des Moines police station and turn himself in.
He admitted he still believes that the FBI and the CIA are corrupt and that the QAnon conspiracies are real, however Johnson said at one point in the interview Jensen asked a question.
“Am I being duped?” he asked the agent. “Can you guys let me in on that if you know those arrests are real?” he asked in connection with Pence and the members of Congress.
