Richard “Bigo” Barnett, the Arkansan who posed with one of his feet propped on a desk in then-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi‘s office during the Capitol riots, has asked a court to release him pending the outcome of his appeal.
Barnett, who carried a stun gun into the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, was among hundreds trying to prevent congressional certification of the presidential election of Joe Biden over Donald Trump.
Barnett, 64, of Gravette was sentenced to 4.5 years in prison and three years of supervised release on May 24, 2023, after being convicted of eight charges for his actions in the deadly riots. Barnett was not accused of violence, but prosecutors said he carried a high-voltage stun gun attached to a walking staff into the Capitol.
The charges against Barnett included obstruction of an official government 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. All of those charges are felonies.
Jurors also found Barnett guilty of entering and remaining in certain rooms in a Capitol building; disorderly conduct in a Capitol building; theft of government property; and parading or demonstrating in a Capitol building.
The Justice Department, which prosecuted Barnett, said in a news release at the time that during an encounter with a police officer that day, “Barnett threatened to call in the mob and push through” a line of police if the officer did not retrieve a flag that Barnett had left in Pelosi’s office.
Barnett is incarcerated at the low-security federal prison in Seagoville, Texas, and is due for release Oct. 30, 2026.
In the motion seeking Barnett’s release and filed Tuesday in U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C., Courtney L. Millian, an assistant federal public defender, wrote, “Mr. Barnett poses no flight or safety risk.”
“After being detained for a little over three and a half months following his
arrest, Mr. Barnett was released on conditions in this case on April 27, 2021,” Millian wrote. “Mr. Barnett remained on bond in this case during the entirety of his more than two years on pretrial release and complied with his release conditions.”
Millian cited a case in which the U.S. Supreme Court is considering a challenge to the federal obstruction charge that was filed against more than 350 people involved in the riots, including Barnett. “Without the obstruction conviction, Mr. Barnett sentence’s will almost certainly be lower,” Millian wrote.