PITTSBURGH — A federal judge on Friday refused to dismiss a count of obstruction of an official proceeding against accused Capitol rioter Rachel Powell, saying she had joined her "almost uniformly unsuccessful fellow January 6 defendants" in trying to get that count tossed out.
"Today, this Court will add to that ocean of text by once again denying this motion to dismiss," U.S. District Judge Royce Lamberth ruled.
Powell, a Mercer County mother of eight who picked up the monikers of "pink hat lady" and "bullhorn lady" for her actions on Jan. 6, is accused of eight crimes in relation to storming the Capitol in support of then-President Donald Trump's repeated lies about the 2020 election.
One of them is obstruction of an official proceeding.
Some 800 Capitol rioters have been charged in the FBI investigation and many of them have argued that obstruction count should be dismissed because they say the meeting of Congress to certify Joe Biden's victory was not an official proceeding.
Lamberth rejected that argument.
"As the Court explained before, and as every court in this district to address the issue has found, the vote certification was an official proceeding as contemplated by (federal law)," the judge said.
He said Powell rammed a 10-foot pipe through a window of the Capitol in an attempt to get in to disrupt the certification of Biden's win and later yelled at other rioters through a bullhorn about the layout of the building to help them take over.
Video captures her "enthusiastic participation in these crimes," the judge said, noting that she "gleefully celebrated" the breach once inside.
Powell and her lawyer said the certification was not an official proceeding, that her conduct did not violate the "integrity of evidence" standard and that the term "corruptly" as used in the statute is too vague.
Powell had argued that an official proceeding by Congress has to involve "inquiry and investigation." The judge said it does not.
On the evidence issue, Powell said the law in question only criminalizes acts that affect "the integrity or availability of evidence" in a proceeding and cited a ruling from another Washington judge who dismissed an obstruction count on those grounds — the only one to do so.
Lamberth said he's already addressed that decision and disagreed with it, saying there's no support for that contention.
In addressing the "corrupt" argument, Powell said the judge should dismiss the obstruction count because the charge doesn't allege what "material advantage" Powell would gain by the obstruction and so she could not have acted "corruptly."
The judge tossed that argument too, saying numerous appellate decisions have held that "corruptly" is not unconstitutionally vague.
Prosecutors say Powell, who remains under court supervision pending trial, is dangerous.
In addition to smashing into the Capitol and directing others on where to go through her bullhorn, she had posted a comment on Facebook in October 2020 in which she said "the only way this is probably capable of being fixed is bloodshed because I'm not so sure our government can be fixed the political way anymore either."
After the riot, she said on Facebook that the legal route wasn't working and that it's "time to rise."
Powell had also left her children unattended to travel to Washington and later gave an interview to The New Yorker while the FBI was looking for her, prosecutors said.
An FBI search of her house found go-bags, gun paraphernalia, ammunition and Shuriken throwing stars.
