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Richard “Bigo” Barnett is seen inside the office suite of then-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) during the riot at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021 (via DOJ court filing). Inset: Richard Barnett arrives at federal court in Washington, Tuesday, Jan. 10, 2023 (AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta).
Freshly pardoned Jan. 6 rioter Richard “Bigo” Barnett, whose image of his boot-clad feet up on then-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi‘s desk became synonymous with that day, says he has no regrets and was glad to participate in the U.S. Capitol attack.
“Oh man, what a great time to be alive,” he said in an interview with the conservative broadcaster Newsmax this week. “I’m so happy I could be a part of it. I’ve had a lot of anger issues to work through. I mean, I’ve been through hell. But I’m telling you what, I wouldn’t give it back for anything.”
Barnett was among 1,500 Jan. 6 rioters pardoned by President Donald Trump on Inauguration Day, Jan. 20. Barnett got out of prison the following day after spending a year and eight months incarcerated, he told Newsmax.
When photographed inside Pelosi’s office during the riot, Barnett smiled ear to ear with a stun gun in his pants and a foot kicked up on a desk. He left a note to Pelosi on the desk sneering: “Bigo was here b—-.” He then swiped an envelope from the office and claimed it as a prize in an interview outside of the building
Barnett was asked about taking the empty envelope, which he said was worth $20. The issue prompted him to go on a tangent in the interview about needing to talk to officials at the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) because “that envelope anywhere else would have been about 10-cent envelope.”
“But, apparently, since the government bought it, it was a $20 envelope,” he said. “I left 25 cents on the b—-‘s desk … basically to pay for that envelope because I had bled on it, and I didn’t feel good about leaving it behind.”
“They made a huge issue out of it,” he added. “I paid for it. I didn’t know that the government was wasting our money to the point the taxpayers have paid $20 for an empty envelope.”
Barnett was originally sentenced to 54 months — or 4 ½ years — in prison.
When ordering the self-proclaimed white nationalist to be held in custody pretrial in January 2021, U.S. District Judge Beryl Howell, a Barack Obama appointee, said Barnett “enthusiastically participated in this assault on the Capitol.”
“This was not a peaceful protest,” an audibly livid Judge Howell noted following an hourlong detention hearing then. “Hundreds of people came to Washington, D.C. to disrupt the peaceful transfer of power.”
Assistant U.S. Attorney Mary Lyle Dohrmann called pretrial detention necessary because of Barnett’s brazenness, advanced planning, and his weapons.
“He knew exactly what he was doing,” Dohrmann told the judge then. “He brought a stun device, which he bought just days before.”
Barnett was eventually released on pretrial release, before a federal jury heard his case in January 2023.
When he took the stand at trial, Barnett reportedly adjusted his tone from defiance to “regrets.”
“I probably shouldn’t have put my feet on the desk,” Barnett told the jury, according to the Washington Post. “And my language.”
“I’m a Christian,” he reportedly added. “It just wasn’t good. It wasn’t who I am.”
Barnett was convicted on Jan. 23, 2023, of several felonies and multiple misdemeanors. The major counts included obstruction of an official proceeding, interfering with a police officer during a civil disorder, entering and remaining in a restricted building or grounds with a dangerous or deadly weapon, and disorderly and disruptive conduct in a restricted building or grounds with a dangerous weapon.
Though lower than what prosecutors wanted, U.S. District Judge Christopher Cooper’s sentence hewed exactly to the recommendation of the U.S. Probation Department.
Cooper, a Barack Obama appointee, reportedly called Barnett a “face” of Jan. 6 and told him he enjoyed the “notoriety,” according to CBS.
