‘Bullhorn Lady’ Mother in Pennsylvania Arrested Over Capitol Riot
A Pennsylvania mother of eight on the run from authorities for her role in the Capitol riot has been arrested by the FBI, according to federal prosecutors.
Rachel Marie Powell of Sandy Lake, Pennsylvania, “is in custody,” Margaret Philbin, a spokesperson for the Pittsburgh U.S. Attorney’s Office, told The Daily Beast.
Powell, 40, was apprehended Thursday night in New Castle, according to Philbin. She could not immediately be reached for comment, and does not yet have a lawyer listed in court records.
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The cheese and yogurt purveyor—dubbed “the bullhorn lady” after video emerged of Powell appearing to shout orders through a bullhorn during the Jan. 6 sacking of the Capitol—was apparently not home when the FBI raided her house Thursday afternoon. Neighbors told local news reporters that Powell and her family had lived there for several years but mostly kept to themselves.
According to a complaint filed Friday in federal court, Powell is facing charges of obstruction, depredation of government property, entering a restricted building with a dangerous weapon, and violent entry/disorderly conduct. She was scheduled to appear before a judge at 3 p.m.
The filing says Powell used a pipe to smash a window at the Capitol, causing more than $1,000 in damages. An anonymous tipster first outed Powell to the FBI, it explains, and gave agents the link to Powell’s Facebook profile. There, agents were able to match photos of Powell wearing a distinctive set of earmuffs with those she was seen wearing at the Capitol.
After being seen on video during the Jan. 6 riot in a pink hat and sunglasses, Powell gained her signature moniker, though she was also known as “Pink Hat Lady.”
“People should probably coordinate together if you’re going to take this building,” Powell shouted through a shattered window to a group of insurrectionists inside the Capitol. “We got another window to break to make in-and-out easy.”
Powell, who became the subject of her own FBI “Wanted” poster, agreed to an interview with Ronan Farrow of The New Yorker before she was charged.
Originally from Anaheim, California, Powell told Farrow that she acted spontaneously on Jan. 6, and was “not part of a plot.”
“I have no military background.... I’m a mom with eight kids,” she said. “That’s it. I work. And I garden. And raise chickens. And sell cheese at a farmers’ market.... Listen, if somebody doesn’t help and direct people, then do more people die? That’s all I’m going to say about that. I can’t say anymore. I need to talk to an attorney.”
Powell apparently became radicalized during the past year or so: When she wasn’t manning a table at local farmers’ markets, Powell used Facebook to post about topics such as yoga and organic food. However, she recently began expressing increasingly extreme political views that included various conspiracy theories about COVID-19 and unfounded doubts about the validity of the 2020 presidential election.
“It isn’t to [sic] late to wake up, say no, and restore freedoms,” she wrote on Facebook last May.
Powell was reportedly influenced by Infowars founder Alex Jones, who has claimed the Sandy Hook school shooting was a hoax, and former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani, who has made countless false claims while serving as Donald Trump’s personal attorney.
Deborah Lemons, Powell’s mother, told Farrow that Powell was held at gunpoint during a carjacking when she was a child. She said it “amazed” her that her daughter—with whom Lemons has had a strained relationship for the past several years—would participate in the Capitol riot having been on the wrong end of violence in the past.
“She well knows what it’s like to wonder if she’s gonna lose her life,” said Lemons.
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