The man photographed sitting with his foot on a desk in House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s office during the violent takeover of the U.S. Capitol on Wednesday was arrested Friday morning, NBC News reports.
Law enforcement officials said that Richard Barnett, 60, of Gravette, Arkansas, was taken into custody in his home state on charges of entering and remaining on restricted grounds, violent entry and theft of public property.
Images of Barnett were splashed across social media as the deadly mayhem unfolded in the nation’s capital after a rally led by President Donald Trump who told his supporters to swarm the Capitol in defiance of the election results.
A New York Times reporter tweeted that he spoke with Barnett after his stunt in Pelosi’s office as the mob rampaged the halls of Congress. In a video, he boasts that he took a personalized envelope, but insisted he didn’t steal it.
“I left a quarter on her desk,” he said.
Barnett also claimed that he knocked politely on the door to the California Democrat’s office, but was then swept inside by other rioters who had breached the Capitol. He said he left a “nasty note” as well, using an expletive to refer to Pelosi (video below).
“I’ll probably be telling them this is what happened all the way to the D.C. jail,” he added.
Here’s Mr. Barnett, who goes by “Bigo,” telling the story in his own words pic.twitter.com/oSyKiCDXgy
— Matthew Rosenberg (@AllMattNYT) January 6, 2021