A federal judge has ordered the Justice Department to return the iconic helmet and spear of the so-called “QAnon Shaman,” Jacob Chansley, to their rightful owner. Chansley was sentenced to 41 months in prison for entering the Capitol building on January 6, 2021. 

Chansley, who paraded shirtless and covered in paint through the Capitol complex on that day, was seen sitting at the desk of the Senate president on the chamber floor. On that desk where Vice President Pence had been sitting to preside over the vote to certify the 2020 election of President Biden, there was a note left by Chansley that said: “Justice is coming.”

His lawyers asked the government to return the items confiscated by the federal government, though the government pushed back, saying that the helmet and spear were “used to project strength during the assault on the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021,” and should therefore not be returned to Chansley. 

A jurist disagreed with that argument, however, writing that Chansley was entitled to his “unmistakable” outfit. 

“Mr. Chansley has completed his prison sentence and much of his term of supervised release. Now, he has moved for the return of his property seized and still held by the government, including his spear and helmet,” Judge Royce Lamberth, a senior judge on the District of Columbia district bench, wrote.

“Since the government has not established that it still needs these items as evidence and has not sought their forfeiture, the Court will GRANT Mr. Chansley’s motion,” the judge writes.