Pardoned January 6 rioter Richard Barnett has said that he has “no regrets” about sitting with his feet up at then-Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s desk during the attack on Congress in early 2021.
“Oh man, what a great time to be alive. You know, I’m so happy I could be a part of it,” Barnett said during an appearance on the rightwing broadcaster Newsmax. “I’ve had a lot of anger issues to work through. I mean, I’ve been through hell. But I’m telling you what, I wouldn’t give it back for anything.”
The host, Greg Kelly, told Barnett: “Now let me take a look at you at that desk, and by the way, this is one of the iconic images of January 6th, and some people are horrified by it.”
“You say you’re glad all of this happened. Tell us why. How did this turn out to be a good thing in the end?” he asked.
“Myself and over 1,600 other J6ers showed up that day for Trump because he asked us to be there, and as a point in our country, I’m hoping that that was one of the reasons that the rest of America woke up and saw the corruption and destruction that was happening to our country,” said Barnett, seemingly referencing the baseless claims pushed by President Donald Trump that the 2020 election was stolen.
“As hard as it’s been, as much as it would have been nice for it not to have happened, it had to happen. You know, I have no regrets,” he added.
The Newsmax segment was highlighted by Mediaite.
Barnett was asked about the charges against him for stealing an envelope on Pelosi’s desk, to which the rioter said he needed to speak to the Department of Government Efficiency, the outside advisory panel led by Elon Musk intended to review options to cut government spending.
“I need to have some conversations with DOGE because that envelope anywhere else would have been about a 10-cent envelope, but apparently, because the government bought it, it was a $20 envelope,” said Barnett. “I left 25 cents on the – you might wanna bleep this – I left 25 cents on the b****’s desk.”
“Uh oh,” said Kelly, in response to the curse word.
Barnett said he left the 25 cents “basically to pay for that envelope because I had bled on it, and I didn’t feel good about leaving it behind. They made a huge issue out of it.”
He added: “You know, I paid for it, I didn’t know that the government was wasting our money to the point the taxpayers have paid $20 for an empty envelope … but so be it.”
He was sentenced to 54 months behind bars in May 2023 following a guilty verdict on several charges, such as entering a restricted building with a dangerous weapon as well as theft of government property. He was pardoned by Trump this month alongside roughly 1,600 other people convicted of crimes connected to the events of the Capitol riot.
