'I'm a patriot not a domestic terrorist:' Man pictured with feet on Pelosi's desk says he was defending his country
Richard Barnett, who faces 20 years in jail, tells ITV News Correspondent Robert Moore he was defending the constitution and freedom during the Capitol riots on January 6.
You must travel deep into the remote Ozark mountains of northwest Arkansas to find his house.And when you get there, you find a man who is full of smiles and good humour. And that's pretty surprising given his story.
Richard Barnett has just emerged from four months in a Washington DC jail. He claims he was abused and mistreated by prison guards.
More significantly, he still faces criminal charges that could see him put behind bars for up to 20 years. That's a lot of prison time.Barnett is known to the world because of one famous photograph, showing him in Speaker Nancy Pelosi's office, one foot on her desk, appearing the very symbol of the arrogant insurrectionist.But he tells me that the world has misunderstood him. I'm a patriot, he insists, not a domestic terrorist. My mission is not to destroy America, but save it.
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That's the message he wants to put out. That his purpose on January 6 was to defend the constitution and freedom, not attack it. He denies he is a white supremacist or has any links to far-right groups.Barnett is a former Memphis firefighter, who now lives on his remote property and fixes vintage American trucks for a living, including a 1940s Buick that he has nicknamed 'Freedom'.His lawyer, Joe McBride, is deploying a novel defence to try and ensure his client doesn't have to return to jail, claiming that Barnett was pushed involuntarily into the Capitol building on January 6 by the sheer weight and size of the crowd.
He found himself in Nancy Pelosi's office and jokingly posed for some photographs. That's the defence strategy.Prosecutors are likely to dispute all of that, pointing out that he was armed with a stun gun. (Barnett says it wasn't functioning and therefore wasn't a weapon). He also wrote an offensive and crude note directed at Speaker Pelosi.Like almost all the insurrectionists that I have interviewed since January 6, Richard Barnett doesn't express remorse or regret.
Over 400 criminal cases against alleged insurrectionists and rioters are pending in America's courts. Almost all are pleading not guilty. Many of the defendants, including Barnett, claim they came to Washington to engage in a political protest, and that events simply spiralled out of control.But that photograph of him at Pelosi's desk remains one of the images of January 6 and turned Barnett into one of the best known of all the Capitol suspects.If convicted, he faces a maximum of 20 years behind bars, although as Barnett told me with a grin, "I'm in it, to win it."