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WASHINGTON – A man casually pictured sitting with his foot on a desk in the office of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi at the United States Capitol as a pro-Trump mob ransacked the chambers of Congress was arrested on Friday, reported said law enforcement officials.
Richard Barnett, 60, of Gravette, Arkansas, has been taken into police custody in his home state for entering and staying on restricted grounds, violently entering and stealing public property, according to a Justice Department official. . Further details were not immediately available.
Apparent footage of Barnett was released on social media as the deadly chaos unfolded in the nation’s capital on Wednesday, as Democratic and Republican lawmakers gathered to count the electoral college’s votes. Members of Congress condemned the violence and riots, which were preceded by a rally led by President Donald Trump who told his supporters to overwhelm the Capitol in defiance of the election results.
Also accused in connection with the riots on the Capitol Friday was West Virginia state lawmaker, Republican Del. Derrick Evans, who recorded and then deleted a video of himself joining the crowd. A petition has been launched for him to resign.
As the chaos continued Wednesday afternoon, a New York Times reporter tweeted that he spoke with Barnett after his stunt in Pelosi’s office. In one video, he brags about taking a personalized envelope, but insisted he didn’t steal it.
“I left a quarter of it on his desk,” he says.
Barnett also claimed he politely knocked on the door of the California Democrat’s office, but was then dragged inside by other rioters who raped the Capitol. He said he also left a “bad mark”, using an expletive to refer to Pelosi.
“I will probably tell them that is what happened up to DC prison,” he added.
On Friday, it was not immediately clear whether Barnett had a lawyer.
The mayor of Gravette, Arkansas, said the photos drew threats and other unwanted attentions to his small rural community near the Missouri border.
“It’s a shame that something like this is what puts you in the public eye,” Mayor Kurt Maddox said, according to NBC affiliate KNWA. “This is not the town of Gravette. This person is not who Gravette is nor who the people are.”
Helpers at Pelosi said his office was vandalized on Wednesday and confirmed that a laptop in a conference room was stolen. The equipment, however, was only used for presentations, an assistant said.
Pelosi and other Democratic leaders have called for Trump to be removed from office in his final days in the White House.
The FBI is asking the public for help in identifying other Trump supporters who illegally invaded the Capitol for about four hours, with investigators examining surveillance footage and social media posts. But the vast majority of the hundreds of people who stormed the building were allowed to leave without being arrested, making the task of locating them extremely difficult.
So far, dozens of arrests have been made, including 41 people who were on Capitol Hill grounds on Wednesday evening and Thursday morning, according to the DC Metropolitan Police Department.
Pete Williams reported from Washington and Erik Ortiz from New York.
Alex moe contributed.
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