WASHINGTON — A deep unease trickled through Jacob Glick’s entire body. He had started a virtual deposition of Jim Watkins, the large, scruffy QAnon conspiracy theorist who runs 8kun, a website filled with hateful, racist content that included calls for violence at the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.

Glick, then an investigative counsel for the House select committee probing the Jan. 6 attack, made the customary introductions of his colleagues. Watkins jotted down all the names.

“It already felt creepier — and I’ve been in some creepy ones,” Glick said.

Glick was among the staff on the now-disbanded Jan. 6 panel who say their work exposed them to threats, raised doubts about their safety and required additional safety precautions. Their experiences, recounted in interviews, serve as a high-profile example of concerns among Capitol Hill staffers about whether their work could make them a target for political violence.

At one point during the deposition, Watkins told Glick that his website typically got 300,000 to 3 million visits in a day, but it would spike the day of the deposition. Glick asked why and got a chilling response.

“Because they know I’m talking to you,” Watkins said with a grin.

Glick calmly responded, “Got it.” But he said inside he felt “terrified” thinking about what could happen to him and his family as the target of supporters of the pro-Trump rioters who stormed the Capitol. He wondered about conspiracy theorists.

“As a gay Jewish lawyer who works for Jamie Raskin, am I all of the sudden going to become this linchpin of QAnon?” Glick said.

Glick said he was overcome with fear for his partner and whether his address was available to the public — and he still thinks about it.

“I had a moment of real panic where I wondered what kind of storyline I was going to be,” he said.

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