Rioter who propped feet on desk in Pelosi’s office gets prison
WASHINGTON >> An Arkansas man who propped his feet on a desk in then-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s office in a widely circulated photo from the U.S. Capitol riot was sentenced Wednesday to more than four years in prison.
Richard “Bigo” Barnett became one of the faces of the Jan. 6 riot by supporters of then-President Donald Trump, and U.S. District Judge Christopher Cooper said in announcing that sentence that Barnett seemed at times to enjoy the notoriety.
“All the folks who follow ‘Bigo’ need to know the actions of Jan. 6 cannot be repeated without some serious repercussions,” Cooper said, alluding to the media attention and social media following Barnett attracted after the riot.
The 54-month sentence for Barnett, a retired firefighter from Gravette, Arkansas, comes after he was convicted at trial on eight counts, including felony charges of civil disorder and obstruction of an official proceeding, in this case a Jan. 6, 2021, session of Congress to certify Joe Biden’s victory over Trump in the 2020 presidential election.
The photos of Barnett lounging at a desk in Pelosi’s office made him one of the most memorable figures from the riot. Barnett, 63, testified he was “going with the flow” and struck a pose after news photographers told him to “act natural.”
He told the judge that joining the riot was “an enigma my life” that he regretted, but said prosecutors wanted him to be “remorseful for things I did not do.”
“Jan. 6 was a traumatic dey for everyone, not just law enforcement,” he said. He has vowed to appeal his conviction. He testified at trial that he was swept along with the crowd into the Capitol, and was looking for a bathroom when he unwittingly entered Pelosi’s office and encountered two news photographers.
Cooper, though, said he did not believe Barnett played such a passive role.