All through the late afternoon, rioters repeatedly emerged from the Capitol bearing trophies that they'd stolen. A number of carried “Space Closed”
All through the late afternoon, rioters repeatedly emerged from the Capitol bearing trophies that they’d stolen. A number of carried “Space Closed” indicators that they’d grabbed after which stormed previous. But it surely was something taken from Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s workplace that was particularly fashionable with the group.
One individual emerged holding up a chunk of a picket plaque that marked the doorway to Ms. Pelosi’s workplace, which somebody appeared to have torn off a wall. The rioter held it up like a trophy, as tons of of individuals on the steps under cheered wildly. “Not our speaker!” shouted one girl. “Get her out!” shouted one other man.
Richard Bigo Barnett, 60, from Gravette, Ark., stood exterior the Capitol, his shirt ripped open and his chest bared to the chilly, loudly bragging about how he had damaged into the speaker’s workplace.
“I wrote her a nasty observe, put my toes up on her desk,” mentioned Mr. Barnett, who goes by the nickname Bigo. He was brandishing an envelope with the speaker’s letterhead that he had taken from Ms. Pelosi’s workplace. He insisted he had not stolen it — “I put 1 / 4 on her desk.”
Mr. Barnett continued: When the police got here in with pepper spray, “I mentioned, ‘I paid for this, it’s mine, and I left.’” His face was puffy from being hit with pepper spray, however he was laughing as he entertained fellow protesters together with his story.
His account was backed up by an image later posted on social media that confirmed Mr. Barnett sitting at Ms. Pelosi’s desk together with his toes up, simply as he had described.
Mr. Barnett insisted that he had simply been knocking on the door when he was pushed in by the group. It was a narrative he knew nobody would purchase. “I’ll in all probability be telling them that is what occurred all the best way to the D.C. jail,” Mr. Barnett mentioned.