Man pictured in Pelosi's office is arrested
WASHINGTON — A man photographed casually sitting with his foot on a desk in House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's office at the U.S. Capitol while a pro-Trump mob rampaged the halls of Congress was arrested Friday, law enforcement officials said.
Richard Barnett, 60, of Gravette, Arkansas, was taken into custody in his home state on federal charges of entering and remaining on restricted grounds, violent entry and theft of public property, according to a Department of Justice official. A spokesperson for the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Western District of Arkansas tells NBC News Barnett was arrested this morning and he’s being held in the Washington County Detention Center in Fayetteville, Arkansas, awaiting his initial appearance.
Images, apparently of Barnett, were splashed across social media as the deadly mayhem unfolded in the nation's capital on Wednesday, just as Democratic and Republican lawmakers convened to count the Electoral College votes. Members of Congress condemned the violence and rioting, which was preceded by a rally led by President Donald Trump who told his supporters to swarm the Capitol in defiance of the election results.
Also charged Friday in connection with the rioting at the Capitol was a state lawmaker from West Virginia, Republican Del. Derrick Evans, who had recorded and then deleted a video of himself joining the throng. A petition has been started for him to step down.
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 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.
"I'll probably be telling them this is what happened all the way to the D.C. jail," he added.
It was not immediately clear Friday if Barnett had an attorney.
The mayor of Gravette said the photos have brought threats and other unwelcome attention to his small, rural community near the Missouri border.
"It's a shame something like this is what puts you in the public eye," Mayor Kurt Maddox said, according to NBC affiliate KNWA. "This is not the city of Gravette. This one person is not who Gravette is and not who the people are."
Aides to Pelosi have said her office was vandalized on Wednesday, and confirmed that a laptop from a conference room had been stolen. The equipment, however, was used only for presentations, an aide said.
Pelosi and other Democratic leaders have called for Trump to be removed from office amid his final days in the White House.
The FBI is requesting the public's help in identifying other Trump supporters who unlawfully invaded the Capitol for about four hours, with investigators poring over surveillance footage and social media posts. But the vast majority of the hundreds of people who stormed the building were allowed to leave without getting arrested, making the task of tracking them down exceedingly difficult.
So far, dozens of arrests have been made, including 41 people who were at the Capitol grounds late Wednesday and early Thursday, according to D.C.'s Metropolitan Police Department.
Pete Williams reported from Washington, and Erik Ortiz from New York.
A top Capitol security official is resigning after the assault by a pro-Trump mob, and more are expected to go
House Sergeant-at-Arms Paul Irving, a top Capitol security official, has resigned from his post, Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi said Thursday afternoon.
Pelosi has called for the termination of the Capitol Police chief, who she said is a responsible for Wednesday's security "failure" that allowed Trump supporters to storm the Capitol.
Sen. Chuck Schumer, who will soon be the Senate Majority Leader, said he intends to fire the Senate sergeant-at-arms.
A top congressional security official is resigning after Trump supporters stormed the Capitol, Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi announced Thursday.
Pelosi said that House Sergeant-at-Arms Paul Irving, who reports directly to the speaker, has already submitted his resignation, according to multiple reports. Sen. Chuck Schumer, a New York Democrat who will soon be the Senate Majority Leader, said that he intends to fire Senate Sergeant-at-Arms Mike Stenger.
"If Senate Sergeant-at-Arms Stenger hasn't vacated the position by then, I will fire him as soon as Democrats have a majority in the Senate," he said in a statement to Politico.
As Democratic leaders in Congress put pressure on the sergeants-at-arms, Pelosi is also calling for the firing of the head of the Capitol Police, Steven Sund. "There was a failure at the top of the Capitol police," Pelosi said at a press conference Thursday afternoon.
Sund issued a statement Thursday in response to the events that unfolded on Wednesday, writing that "Capitol Police officers and our law enforcement partners responded valiantly when faced with thousands of individuals involved in violent riotous actions as they stormed the United States Capitol Building."
He said that protesters attacked police officers with various weapons and even chemical irritants. Sund characterized the riots at the Capitol as being "unlike any I have ever experienced in my 30 years in law enforcement here in Washington, DC."
Sund added that the incident, as well as security planning, policies, and procedures are currently being reviewed.
Current Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said in a statement Thursday that "the ultimate blame for yesterday lies with the unhinged criminals who broke down doors, trampled our nation's flag, fought with law enforcement, and tried to disrupt our democracy, and with those who incited them."
He added, though, that there is still a need to address what he called "shocking failure sin the Capitol's security posture and protocols."
The storming of the Capitol by Trump supporters on Wednesday came as congressional leaders were meeting to count and certify President-elect Joe Biden's victory over incumbent President Donald Trump in the 2020 presidential election.
Prior to the march on the Capitol, the president told a large crowd of his supporters that the election was fraudulent, repeating a number of falsehoods about the election, and told them they should "never concede."
Trump, who did eventually discourage the actions of his supporters at the Capitol while maintaining his defeat was fradulent, has been sharply criticized for inciting Wednesday's riots, and both Pelosi and Schumer have said that the president should be removed from office by either the 25th amendment or impeachment.
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