Attorney for Jan. 6 defendants says his client is at risk of death due to lack of medical care

A defendant in connection with the Jan. 6 Capitol riots is sick and at risk of dying because he's being denied adequate medical care and a special diet for his celiac disease, his attorney says.

The defendant, Christopher Quaglin, is being held in a Virginia jail pending trial.

"They're starving the guy out," Quaglin's attorney, Joseph McBride, told the Epoch Times. "They have moved him six times since he's been detained. We can't send him to a facility that's not going to be able to take care of him."

Quaglin reportedly cannot eat food with gluten in it. 

Quaglin's complaint is the latest in a series of claims by Jan. 6 pretrial detainees that they have been denied proper medical care and subjected to civil rights violations and inhumane conditions while in custody. 

Quaglin, from New Jersey, has been charged in federal court with assaulting multiple law enforcement officers during the chaos at the Capitol. He is being detained at the Northern Neck Regional Jail in Warsaw, Va. 

"If somebody has celiac disease, the food has to be prepared the same way a Jewish person's kosher food would be prepared: separate," McBride said. "Everything needs to be separated, because if there is cross-contamination, you can kill him. He lost close to 20 pounds now since the 21st of December." 

The superintendent of the jail has denied that Quaglin is not receiving properly prepared meals. 

The Epoch Times has also reported that McBride and the superintendent, Ted Hull, have traded a number of heated emails about Quaglin's care.

"Politeness and professional courtesy preclude me from telling you how I feel about your 'demands' and your obvious lack of manners," read one email from Hull to McBride. "However, my oh-so-subtle disregard for both might provide you a clue on to [sic] how I feel about them. You will do well to understand that 'please' is a much more useful word. Without it, I afraid [sic] it is going to be tough sledding for you."

McBride says he plans to file a writ of habeas corpus seeking the release of his client.

In a recent letter to the director of the Federal Bureau of Prisons, Michael Carvajal, 14 lawmakers (led by GOP Reps. Clay Higgins of Louisiana and Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia) demanded that he use his authority to "investigate this abuse or we will use our authority to investigate your failure."