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Scottsdale church: We did not host 'QAnon Shaman' event

An infamous Jan. 6 rioter known as the "QAnon Shaman" marked his release from a halfway home by speaking in north Scottsdale this past weekend.

But a church identified as having hosted Jacob Chansley did not actually do so.

The Reformed Living Bible Church saw a spike in website activity and voicemails on Monday.

“Some of them, very caustic, very vulgar and very irate,” said John Politan, preaching elder.

Calls and emails came from people angry that Chansley was given a platform.

“But our church had nothing to do with this event. We didn’t even know it was happening,” said Politan.

Politan said his flock leases an auditorium for Sunday services on a multi-acre campus that had previously been a Lutheran church, a Jewish synagogue and a charter school.

He said Chansley spoke in a meeting hall located in a separate building that his church does not lease.

Matthew Casey has won Edward R. Murrow awards for hard news and sports reporting since he joined KJZZ as a senior field correspondent in 2015.