Pro-Trump Rioter Bragged to Police About Vandalizing and Looting Speaker Pelosi’s Office Without Punishment
Saul Loeb/Getty Images
A pro-Trump rioter managed to vandalize and loot House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s (D-CA) office during Wednesday’s attack on the United States Capitol without any punishment.
He was later identified as Northwest Arkansas native Richard Barnett after he bragged to reporters about his successful raid, willingly sharing his information with them.
Talking to New York Times reporter Matthew Rosenberg, Barnett revealed that he “put a quarter on her desk” after stealing an envelope from Pelosi’s office because he’s “not a thief.”
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
Unconcerned with the punishment he could face for the clear crime, Barnett posed for photos with the envelope, which he also claimed to have bled on:
Richard barnett of Arkansas broke into house speaker Pelosi’s office, stole her mail, and then made it safely back out to brag about it. Do you think a black American could get away with this? pic.twitter.com/RjUGPJikfk
— mohamad safa (@mhdksafa) January 7, 2021
“I wrote her a nasty note, put my feet up on her desk,” Barnett told Rosenberg, later revealing that when the police arrived with pepper spray, “I said, ‘I paid for this, it’s mine,’ and I left.”
Washington Post reporter Jon Swaine also exposed Barnett for being a self-proclaimed white nationalist who had prepared for “a violent death” prior to the attack on the Capitol.
New: Richard “Bigo” Barnett, the pro-Trump rioter pictured yesterday in Nancy Pelosi’s office, recently said on a pseudonymous FB account that he was a white nationalist and prepared for a violent death. https://t.co/RVW3159xNk pic.twitter.com/qAjrspkaEQ
— Jon Swaine (@jonswaine) January 7, 2021
“I am white. There is no denying that. I am a nationalist. I put my nation first. So that makes me a white nationalist,” Barnett wrote in a Facebook post, adding in another that he “came into this world kicking and screaming, covered in someone else’s blood,” and was “not afraid to go out the same way.”
