A Pennsylvania woman who used a bullhorn to direct rioters attacking the U.S. Capitol was convicted on Tuesday of charges that she joined the mob in an attempt to keep President Joe Biden out of the White House.
U.S. District Judge Royce Lamberth heard testimony without a jury before he convicted Rachel Marie Powell of felony charges stemming from the Jan. 6, 2021, siege. Powell, who was convicted of all nine counts in her indictment, is scheduled to be sentenced on Oct. 17, according to court records.
Powell, wearing a distinctive pink hat and fur-lined jacket hoodie, joined a mob of rioters who confronted police officers at bike rack barriers on the west side of the Capitol. She used her back to push against the police line, prosecutors said.
A video captured Powell using a bullhorn to encourage other rioters to 鈥渃oordinate together if you鈥檙e going to take this building.鈥 She also gave them "very detailed instructions" about the layout of the Capitol,
Powell told rioters they had "another window to break.鈥 She herself used an ice-axe and a large pipe to break a window, according to prosecutors.
Powell, 41, of Sandy Lake, Pennsylvania, waived her right to a jury trial. The judge convicted her of charges that she interfered with police and obstructed the Jan. 6 joint session of Congress for certifying Biden's 2020 electoral victory over Donald Trump.
Prosecutors asked Lamberth to jail Powell until her sentencing, but the judge agreed to let her remain free until the hearing.
A lawyer for Powell had no comment on the verdict.
Powell played a 鈥渓eading role鈥 during the riot, a prosecutor said at a February 2021 hearing.
鈥淪he is front and center in the incursion.鈥 Assistant U.S. Attorney Elizabeth Aloi added, .
Powell was arrested nearly a month after the riot. FBI agents found several smashed cellular telephones, gun paraphernalia and other weapons when they searched her home.
Powell and her ex-husband shared custody of six minor children in 2021. She left her children at home when she went to Washington to attend the 鈥淪top the Steal鈥 rally, according to prosecutors.
Shortly before her arrest, The New Yorker interviewed Powell for an article headlined, 鈥淎 Pennsylvania Mother鈥檚 Path to Insurrection.鈥
鈥淟isten, if somebody doesn't help and direct people, then do more people die?鈥 she asked her interviewer.
Prosecutors said Powell 鈥渟howed an inclination towards violence鈥 before the Jan. 6 riot. She posted on Facebook in October 2020 that she agreed 鈥渨ith the possibility of civil war happening.鈥
鈥淯nfortunately, the only way this is probably capable of being fixed is bloodshed because I鈥檓 not so sure our government can be fixed the political way anymore either,鈥 she wrote.
Prosecutors also said Powell described her 鈥渟urveillance鈥 of an unidentified public official鈥檚 home in a November 2020 message to somebody who replied that they were 鈥渁fraid to ask why鈥 she was there.
Approximately 100 of them have been convicted by juries or judges. More than 600 others have pleaded guilty.
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Associated Press writer Alanna Durkin Richer in Boston contributed to this report.
