Confinement at home sought for Jan. 6 rioter

GPS won’t work where the ‘pink hat lady’ lives

PITTSBURGH — Because there are no cell towers where she lives for GPS monitoring, the U.S. now wants the “pink hat lady” confined to her rural Mercer County home pending trial on charges of smashing into the Capitol on Jan. 6.

A D.C. judge last week ordered that Rachel Powell, a mother of eight, be on GPS monitoring because she keeps violating pretrial release conditions.

But federal prosecutors said they didn’t realize GPS wouldn’t work where she is because it’s too remote. So on Monday, they asked Judge Royce Lamberth to confine her to her residence with approval to leave only granted by her pretrial services officer in Pittsburgh.

Powell is accused of hefting a massive pipe to bash in a window at the Capitol, then bellowing orders through a bullhorn at other rioters about the layout of the building. She wore a distinctive pink hat in the attack, forever earning her the “pink hat lady” nickname, although some have taken to calling her the “bullhorn lady.” Either way, she’s facing certain prison time if convicted.

Powell lives on property owned by her boyfriend, Joe Jenkins, who runs a slate roofing consulting company. The pretrial services office has said that she has repeatedly violated her release conditions by doing unapproved jobs for Jenkins and leaving her house when she isn’t allowed to.

The U.S. attorney’s office said GPS was the only way to make Powell comply with court orders short of locking her up.

But Assistant U.S. Attorney Lucy Sun said authorities have since learned that the area is too rural, so they want the judge to order her into home detention until the case is resolved. Sun said Powell can still do office work for Jenkins.

Prosecutors insist that Powell is violent and a potential threat. In addition to smashing the window with a 10-foot pipe, an act captured on video, they said she posted on Facebook that the only way to fix America’s political system is with “bloodshed.”

Andrew Rush Tribune News Service Accused Capitol rioter Rachel Powell after being released from Butler County Prison on Feb. 12, 2021, in Butler, Ohio. Powell is accused of smashing a U.S. Capitol window with a pipe and exhorting rioters to breach the building.