An Arkansas man who propped his feet on a desk in then-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's office during the riot at the U.S. Capitol planned the trip for weeks and came prepared for violence, a prosecutor said Tuesday as his trial got underway.
Richard"Bigo" Barnett had a stun gun tucked into his pants when he stormed the Capitol, invaded Pelosi's office and posed for a photo that became one of the attack's more well-known images, prosecutors said. He also took a piece of her mail and left behind a note that said,"Nancy, Bigo was here," prosecutors said. Barnett punctuated the message with a sexist expletive.
Before leaving Capitol grounds, Barnett used a bullhorn to give a speech to the crowd, shouting,"We took back our house, and I took Nancy Pelosi's office!" according to prosecutors. Defense attorneys have argued that the former firefighter didn't break barriers or assault police as he was swept along into the building with the rest of the crowd. He wandered into Pelosi's office suite looking for a bathroom, his lawyers said.
Records from a Bass Pro Shop in Arkansas showed that Barnett purchased the stun gun five days before he traveled to Washington. FBI agents found the packaging for the device in his home.
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