WASHINGTON – A federal judge in Washington on Thursday ordered that Richard Barnett – the man from Arkansas who is sitting with his foot in the office of the house, Nancy Pelosi, during the January 6 uprising – be held in jail while his case continued, and the words in anger as she announced her decision off the bench.
“His judicial conduct … shows a total disregard for the law and the regulations of officials,” said U.S. District Chief Justice Beryl Howell. “A total disregard for the US Constitution.”
Prosecutors have appealed to Howell after a federal magistrate’s judge in Arkansas on Jan. 15 denied their request to detain Barnett in anticipation of the trial and instead ordered house arrest. Howell said Thursday that the crimes Barnett was charged with were “too benign” on their face to capture the extent of what he and others who participated in the uprising on Jan. 6 had to do. in the Capitol – a shock device in the form of a walking stick – as well as two offenses for violent entry and disorderly conduct on Capitol territory and theft of government property; he was photographed outside the Capitol holding up an envelope he had taken, according to Pelosi’s office.
“What happened that day is criminal activity destined to appear in the history books of this country,” Howell said. “It was not a peaceful demonstration. Hundreds of people came to Washington, DC, to disrupt the transition of power and to obstruct Congress, a branch of the federal government, in carrying out its duties, to to fulfill constitutional duty to the votes of the Electoral College. ‘
Howell said DC residents are still living with the “consequences” of the assault on the Capitol, noting the deployment of the national guard that led to the inauguration of President Joe Biden. The testimony against Barnett was ‘overwhelming’, she said, describing how he ‘stomped’ to Pelosi’s office and ‘felt so justified that he put his feet on the desk’ and took her post. Howell is no stranger to the Capitol – years before she became a federal judge in 2010, she worked for the Senate Judiciary Committee for a decade.
“Brazen, righteous, dangerous,” the judge said of Barnett.
During Barnett’s first detention hearing in Arkansas, his attorney introduced friends and family members as character witnesses. Howell was not convinced and said that many of the witnesses apparently did not know Barnett well, and it appears that his wife was trying to hide evidence. Although Barnett did not have a previous criminal record, Howell attributed evidence from the government that he was the subject of two police reports last year, including one where the caller accused him of aiming his gun at her car because she ‘ a black Sticker of living thing.
Barnett’s lawyer Anthony Siano argued that his client voluntarily surrendered when he heard he was wanted, a sign that he would comply with the court orders if he were allowed to go home. But Howell also did not give as much weight, pointing out that there was evidence that he took steps to prevent him from being tracked down, including locating location on his phone, and boasted to the FBI that they would do nothing incriminating. does not find his home because he was ‘smart’; investigators did not find Barnett’s phone, prosecutors said Thursday. Howell said she does not know how smart Barnett is, “but he’s definitely a showman.”
The judge also read in an incredible tone that Barnett given to a New York Times reporter After leaving the Capitol building, I wrote her a nasty note, put my feet on her desk, and scratched my balls. In a video recorded outside the Capitol, Barnett described leaving a note in Pelosi’s office with the words, “Nancy, Bigo was here, you bitch.”
Just as Howell was about to announce her decision, Barnett, who was on trial from outside the jail, asked for a delay in speaking to his attorney first. He briefly tried to reason on his behalf, saying he was a ‘good man’ involved in his community. That did not change the judge’s intention.
Siano was also briefly the target of Howell’s anger. He filed a letter in court accusing prosecutors of notifying him of their appeal of the magistrate’s release order and of ‘misleading’ the court about his role as Barnett’s lawyer. Howell said Siano’s misconduct was “frivolous and meritorious” and that such behavior was “unacceptable.”
Barnett’s case is one of a handful in which prosecutors have asked federal judges in DC, where the Capitol resurrection cases are being prosecuted, to reverse earlier release orders after defendants were arrested in their home countries. Several of the cases are pending before Howell, who on Thursday indicated that the defense attorneys in those other cases face a sharp rise in persuading her to allow their clients to go home.
The Arkansas magistrate, who handled Barnett’s case, went through it thoroughly before making a decision, Howell said at the end of the trial.
“But I respectfully disagree,” she said.