Barnett no bin Laden, says attorney

Officers testify of their encounters with Arkansas man at Capitol riot

Richard "Bigo" Barnett (left) arrives at federal court in Washington with his attorneys, Joseph McBride (right) and Bradford Geyer (second from right), in this Tuesday, Jan. 10, 2023 file photo. Barnett of Gravette was photographed with his feet on a desk in the office of then-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi during the Jan. 6 U.S. Capitol riot. (AP/Manuel Balce Ceneta)
Richard "Bigo" Barnett (left) arrives at federal court in Washington with his attorneys, Joseph McBride (right) and Bradford Geyer (second from right), in this Tuesday, Jan. 10, 2023 file photo. Barnett of Gravette was photographed with his feet on a desk in the office of then-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi during the Jan. 6 U.S. Capitol riot. (AP/Manuel Balce Ceneta)

WASHINGTON -- A Gravette man who yelled at police officers in the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, may have been offensive, but he didn't commit a crime, according to his attorney.

Richard "Bigo" Barnett is just one of those people who speaks his mind, said Joseph D. McBride, one of four people on Barnett's legal defense team.

"It's not a crime to jump up, run and yell, scream and bark at the moon," McBride told a reporter for the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette after court on Friday. "He's everybody's crazy uncle, but he's not Osama bin Laden."

Barnett, 62, faces eight charges in connection with the Capitol riot. He got worldwide attention after posing for photos with his foot on a desk in House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's office suite.

Barnett faces enhanced charges alleging he entered the Capitol with a dangerous or deadly weapon -- a Hike 'n Strike Hiking Staff that he bought at a Bass Pro Shop in Rogers a week before the riot. The stun gun/walking stick can deliver a 950,000-volt shock.

Jury selection began Monday in federal court in the District of Columbia. Witnesses began testifying on Tuesday afternoon. Nine witnesses had testified by the end of the day Friday.

"It has been a fair fight so far," said McBride. "I think both sides are playing fair. Judge Cooper runs a tight ship. I hope the case will be decided on the merits."

McBride was referring to U.S. District Judge Christopher R. Cooper, who is overseeing the trial.

Police body-worn camera video presented in court on Friday showed Barnett yelling at officer Terrence Craig of the Metropolitan Police Department.

The two men were in the crowd in the Capitol Rotunda on the afternoon of Jan. 6, 2021. Once there, Barnett realized he had left an American flag he was carrying in Pelosi's office.

"Please go get my flag," Barnett can be heard saying on the video. "Can you please go get it for me? A state senator gave it to me. Please go get my flag."

A few minutes later, Barnett had stopped saying please.

"Be a patriot and get my flag," Barnett can be heard saying. "It's going to get real bad if you don't get my flag. I'm gonna bring 'em in. ... I'll die for my flag. Get my f****** flag."

In one video, Barnett can be seen waving as if trying to bring others over to break through the line of police officers in which Craig was standing.

"That's the rioter that was in my face and threatening me," Craig testified on Friday, when shown video of Barnett.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Alison Prout asked Craig why he didn't go get Barnett's flag.

Craig said he was trying to help quell a riot, and Barnett's flag "was the last thing on my mind."

Responding to a question from one of Barnett's attorneys, Craig testified that Barnett didn't strike him.

"He was in my personal space making threats," said Craig. "I told him to get back."

Barnett's attorneys said their client might not have been able to hear the officer, who was wearing a gas mask and speaking in a very loud room.

A superseding indictment filed Dec. 21 added the eighth charge against Barnett. It concerns interfering with a police officer -- in this case Craig -- during a civil disorder.

Craig testified that Barnett displayed something that was attached to his belt and he put his left hand on it. Craig didn't know what it was, but from video, it appears to be the Hike 'n Strike stun gun.

Prout asked Craig why he didn't respond by pulling his weapon on Barnett.

Craig said it wasn't necessary.

"At this point, I'm observing him in the crowd and making sure I'm one step ahead of his next move," said Craig.

McBride noted that Barnett didn't say he was going to go back across the police line to retrieve his flag from Pelosi's office suite. He asked police officers to do it for him.

McBride asked Craig if it was possible that Barnett was a "lot of bark, no bite?"

"Is he a talk-a-lot and don't-do-much kind of guy?" asked McBride.

"I don't know," said Craig. "This was my first time to encounter him."

After Craig testified, the next witness the government called to the stand was Loel Skoch, a special agent with the FBI based in Fayetteville.

Skoch testified that agents never found Barnett's cellphone nor the Hike 'n Strike stun gun, but packaging for the device was discovered and photographed at Barnett's residence.

During a Jan. 15, 2021, detention hearing in Fayetteville, FBI Special Agent Jonathan Willett said Barnett told the agents: "If y'all go out there [to my house] and do a search warrant, you can see all my s***. You ain't going to find nothing out there. ... I assure you I'm a smart man. There's not anything there."

In videos of Barnett in the Capitol, he has a cellphone in his hand, filming police officers he encounters.

On Thursday, Metropolitan Police Sgt. Quenterra Carey testified that she instructed Barnett to leave the Capitol building after finding him wandering in and out of Pelosi's office suite. She said he walked away, then went back in to Pelosi's offices, filming with a cellphone the whole time.

"He was recording me and yelling, basically," said Carey. "I don't remember his exact words, but he was yelling something about communists."

In one video, Carey tells Barnett he needs to leave.

Barnett responds, "You need to get off communism is what you need to do. ... We are patriots."

Skoch is scheduled to retake the stand when testimony resumes in the trial on Tuesday.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Michael Gordon told the judge the government will probably rest its case on Tuesday. The defense will then present its witnesses. Court won't be held on Monday because of the observance of Martin Luther King Jr.'s birthday.

Barnett faces the following charges:

• 18:231(a)(3); Civil Disorder

• 18:1512(c)(2) and 2; Obstruction of an Official Proceeding and Aiding and Abetting

• 18:1752(a)(1) and (b)(1)(A); Entering and Remaining in a Restricted Building or Grounds with a Deadly or Dangerous Weapon

• 18:1752(a)(2) and (b)(1)(A); Disorderly and Disruptive Conduct in a Restricted Building or Grounds with a Deadly or Dangerous Weapon

• 40:5104(e)(2)(C); Entering and Remaining in Certain Rooms in the Capitol Building

• 40:5104(e)(2)(D); Disorderly Conduct in a Capitol Building

• 40:5104(e)(2)(G); Parading, Demonstrating, or Picketing in a Capitol Building

• 18:641; Theft of Government Property


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