WASHINGTON -- When Richard "Bigo" Barnett met with FBI agents in Bentonville on Jan. 8, 2021, he propped his feet on the desk and said, "Does this look familiar?" according to testimony in his trial on Tuesday.
"I didn't know how to take it," said FBI Special Agent Jonathan Willett.
Barnett apparently was mimicking the famous photo of him with his foot propped on a desk in House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's office suite during the U.S. Capitol riot on Jan. 6, 2021.
Based on video presented in federal court on Tuesday, Barnett continued through at least part of his FBI interview with one foot on the desk.
Willett said Barnett was confident, "almost a little boisterous or braggy."
Barnett turned himself in that day after talking with the FBI at the Benton County sheriff's office. He spent almost four months in jail in the District of Columbia before he was released on his own recognizance.
Barnett, 62, faces eight charges in connection with the riot. He 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.
Barnett will testify in his trial, his lawyer said Tuesday.
Joseph D. McBride said Barnett's testimony is expected to take half a day and will take place today or Thursday.
Barnett is one of four witnesses the defense plans to call to the stand. The other three include two character witnesses -- Barnett's significant other and his cousin -- and an expert witness.
The government has called 12 witnesses to the stand, including five from Arkansas. Among the Arkansans were three FBI agents, the owner of a Little Rock company that makes stun guns, and an employee of the Bass Pro Shop in Rogers.
Testimony ended Tuesday with FBI Special Agent Kimberly Allen, from the Little Rock office, who will resume testifying this morning.
U.S. District Judge Christopher R. Cooper told the jury at the end of the day Tuesday that Allen will be the government's last witness in the case before the defense presents its witnesses.
Jury selection began Jan. 9. Witnesses began testifying the next day.
FBI Special Agent Loel Skoch resumed testimony on Tuesday. He was on the stand when court recessed at the end of the day Friday.
Skoch said the FBI searched Barnett's home twice -- on Jan. 8, 2021, and again three days later, after learning about the stun gun. The packaging for the stun gun was recovered from Barnett's residence, but investigators never found the stun gun or the cellphone Barnett was using to film events in the Capitol, according to testimony from FBI agents.
Willett testified that Barnett said investigators wouldn't find anything at his residence, adding that he's a "smart man."
Skoch said the FBI also searched the Gravette homes of Mark Hesse and his nephew Anthony Lockhart, who lives in a renovated chicken house on Hesse's property. Hesse and Lockhart met up with Barnett somewhere near D.C. and stayed in a hotel room with him on the night of Jan. 5, 2021, Allen said later when she testifed.
Skoch said investigators took a couple of pieces of body armor, zip ties in a backpack and digital devices from Hesse's property.
"Zip ties can be used for retraining people," testified Skoch.
Bradford L. Geyer, one of Barnett's attorneys, noted while cross examining Skoch that possessing zip ties and a stun gun is legal in Arkansas.
"Nobody got zip tied," Geyer said in reference to the Capitol riot.
Skoch said he's been with the FBI for about 12 years.
"Have you noticed a shift from investigating terrorists like Osama bin Laden to investigating people who live in chicken coops?" Geyer asked Skoch.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Alison Prout objected, and the judge sustained, so Geyer moved on to other questions.
"This investigation was triggered by a photo of a man with his foot on a desk," said Geyer.
"There was more than that," said Skoch.
Geyer questioned Skoch for a considerable amount of time about the FBI labeling Barnett as a "Tier 1 terrorist" on Jan. 6, 2021.
Later, when Allen testified, she said Tier 1 means that a person acted alone, not that they were more dangerous or more of a threat than anyone else.
During Willett's testimony, the government showed several video clips and text messages that Barnett had sent to others.
In one text, Barnett wrote, "Front of Capitol took over Bancy Pepsi office and got tear gassed."
The reference was apparently to Nancy Pelosi's office but auto-correct turned Pelosi into Pepsi, said Willett, in response to a question from Assistant U.S. Attorney Michael Gordon.
Willett said Barnett told him during that Jan. 8, 2021, interview that for the drive from Washington home to Arkansas he had turned location services off on his phone, kept his face covered with a mask and paid cash for everything.
Willett said Barnett had apparently done those things to keep from being identified or tracked during the trip back to Arkansas.
Later, during cross examination, Geyer said Barnett's face had been all over the news so he could have donned a mask to try to protect himself from antifa.
Antifa is a anti-fascist protest movement, according to the Anti-Defamation League.
Allen testified later that there's been no evidence that anyone from antifa was at the Capitol riot or had anything to do with it.
When asked what Barnett talked about in his interview with the FBI, Willett said, "His sentiment was that Joe Biden had not won the election."
Willett said Barnett also talked about China and Communism.
"In that interview, he admitted to me the things he had done on Jan. 6," said Willett. "He described entering the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6 and going to [Nancy] Pelosi's office and having his picture taken."
But Barnett apparently didn't mention the stun gun in that interview. Agents didn't learn about it until later.
"He made some admission about maybe he shouldn't have gone in the Capitol, but he said he didn't regret it," remembers Willett.
During Allen's testimony, a video was played showing Barnett talking about the stun gun.
"There are times in life when you just want to get out in the jungle," said Barnett. "You don't want to be attacked by ravenous wolves, especially at night."
In the video, Barnett said he got the telescoping Hike 'n Strike because in the jungle, "concrete or otherwise," he might need it.
Allen said she interpreted the reference to a concrete jungle to mean a city.
Allen said it's illegal to carry firearms in Washington, D.C.
In another video, Barnett can be heard saying the pole on which he attached an American flag is a "10-pound chunk of steel." Barnett carried that flag and pole with him on Jan. 6, 2021, yelling at police officers in the Capitol Rotunda after he realized he left his flag in Pelosi's office.
"Do you consider a 10-pound metal pole a weapon," Gordon asked Allen.
"Yes," she said.
Kyle Jones, assistant parliamentarian for the House of Representatives, also testified on Tuesday. He was filling the role of deputy parliamentarian on Jan. 6, 2021.
Jones testified at length about the timing of the disruption of the joint session of Congress, which was meeting on Jan. 6, 2021, to certify the electoral vote indicating Biden had won the presidential election.
Cooper told the jury to ignore Barnett's political comments.
"It's not illegal to have strong political beliefs or to express them strongly," said the judge.
Periodically throughout the trial, Cooper would say, "Counsel, bat phone." That's the signal for attorneys to pick up telephones at their desks to have a sidebar conversation with the judge so the jury and audience can't hear. Static is played through audio speakers while they're on the bat phone.
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