Alleged Capitol Attacker Who Sat In Pelosi’s Office Yells At Judge About Still Being In Jail

The alleged Capitol intruder best known for snatching House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s (D-CA) mail and mugging for cameras with his feet up in her office blew up in anger at a federal judge Thursday. 

Richard “Bigo” Barnett was upset at having been in federal custody for a weeks, and he let D.C. District Court Judge Christopher Cooper know that the situation was “not fair.” 

“Everybody else who did things much worse are already home,” Barnett said, according to NBC4’s Scott MacFarlane. “You can’t keep pushing me out month by month.”

“They’re dragging this out!” he yelled, per The New York Times. “They’re letting everybody else out!”

Cooper called a recess after the outburst and later said he would consider a release motion if and when Barnett’s lawyers filed one, the Times reported.

Barnett was charged criminally the day after the attack, and later indicted by a federal grand jury on eight counts, including obstruction of an official proceeding, aiding and abetting, and disorderly and disruptive conduct in a restrictive building with a deadly or dangerous weapon. Barnett has pleaded not guilty on all counts.

Prosecutors have so far argued successfully for Barnett’s pre-trial detention, asserting that he was photographed reclining at Pelosi’s desk with a stun gun on his hip. 

The chief justice of the D.C. District Court, Beryl A. Howell, wrote in late January that Barnett’s alleged conduct on Jan. 6 “was brazen. He bragged about what he had done after leaving the Capitol.” 

Cooper set a status conference for two months from now, May 4. Barnett remains in custody.