A supporter of US President Donald Trump sits inside the office of US Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi as he protest inside the US Capitol in Washington, DC, January 6, 2021.
Saul Loeb | AFP | Getty Images
An Arkansas man who was photographed during the Jan. 6 riot with his feet on a desk in then-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s office, was found guilty on all counts Monday after brief jury deliberations.
Richard Barnett faced eight charges stemming from the insurrection, including theft of government property. He said repeatedly in court last week that he regretted what transpired at the Capitol that day but did not consider his actions illegal.
Barnett appears in images from the riot reclining in a chair in the speaker’s office, with his feet propped up, and what the government referred to as a “stun device” tucked in his pants. Before leaving Pelosi’s office, Barnett took an envelope that he later displayed for cameras outside the Capitol.
In court on Friday, before the case was handed to the jury, Assistant U.S. Attorney Michael Gordon pored over Barnett’s version of Jan. 6 and poked holes in his testimony, visibly angering Barnett.
Barnett, who a day earlier had said he would apologize to Pelosi, D-Calif., if she were in court, admitted during cross-examination that when a police officer told him he needed to leave her office he replied: “You need to give up communism.”
Barnett also admitted to telling an officer in the Capitol: “We’re in a war. You need to pick a side. Don’t be on the wrong side or you’re going to get hurt.”
Richard ‘Bigo’ Barnett arrives at the E. Barrett Prettyman United States Courthouse for jury selection in his trial on January 10, 2023 in Washington, DC.
Win Mcnamee | Getty Images
Defending his actions, Barnett said he didn’t believe he had violated the law on Jan. 6.
“I made some bad mistakes and I regret them but I don’t think I broke the law,” Barnett said Friday. “I feel like a f—— idiot.”
Two years after the riot, the FBI and the Justice Department’s investigation into the Capitol attack has yielded 900 arrests and nearly 500 guilty pleas.
— Dareh Gregorian contributed.
