Man photographed with foot on desk in Nancy Pelosi’s office among those arrested in Capitol breach
Richard Barnett was arrested on Friday morning in Little Rock, Arkansas.
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An Arkansas man has been charged for allegedly breaking into the office of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif, and posing for a picture with her plundered mail, prosecutors announced Friday.
Prosecutors also said they charged a newly elected West Virginia state delegate who recorded himself breaking into the U.S. Capitol.
Richard Barnett was arrested on Friday morning in Little Rock, Ark., and charged with three counts of entering restricted grounds, violent entry and disorderly conduct at the Capitol and theft of public property, said Principal Assistant U.S. Attorney Kenneth Kohl of the District of Columbia.
Barnett, of Gravette, Ark., was photographed sitting with a foot up on a desk in Pelosi’s office at the U.S. Capitol, an image that quickly became emblematic of the chaotic storming of the complex by a pro-Trump mob.
Barnett, 60, who goes by the nickname “Bigo” and has defended white nationalism on Facebook, identified himself as the intruder in Pelosi’s office to the New York Times.
That’s Richard “Bigo” Barnett, 60, from Gravette, Ak., showing off the personalized envelope he took from Speaker Pelosi’s office. He insisted he didn’t steal it — “I left a quarter on her desk.” pic.twitter.com/aST7MCoRwP
— Matthew Rosenberg (@AllMattNYC) January 6, 2021
Kohl also announced that incoming West Virginia delegate Derrick Evans has been charged with unlawfully entering restricted grounds.
An attorney for Evans, John Bryan, has maintained Evans is innocent, that he was not part of the violent mob that damaged the Capitol Building, and that he was exercising his First Amendment rights.
West Virginia House of Delegates member Derrick Evans, left, is given the oath of office Dec. 14, 2020, in the House chamber at the state Capitol in Charleston.
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