The video showed Rachel Powell leaning through the window of the Capitol building, shouting at those who had just breached it.
“Hey, guys, I’ve been in the other room,” she yelled through a bullhorn. “People should probably coordinate if we’re going to take this building.”
FBI Special Agent Carlos Fontanez testified during a detention hearing on Tuesday that Powell was part of the mob that rioted at the Capitol on Jan. 6. She used a large pipe like a battering ram to break a window and then attempted to motivate the people inside that room by telling them how to get to another room below.
“Did she tell them they had another window to break?” asked Assistant U.S. Attorney Jessica Smolar.
“Yes,” Fontanez replied.
“Did she tell them they had more things to do to take the Capitol?”
“Yes,” the agent answered.
Fontanez, who is assigned to the Washington, D.C., field office, said he was one of the law enforcement officers to respond to the Capitol that day.
“It was quite something when I got there,” he said. “Smoke everywhere, broken doors and windows. Blood.
“It was more like a crime scene rather than the U.S. Capitol.”
Powell, who was arrested on Thursday, is charged with obstruction, depredation of government property, being in a restricted building with a dangerous weapon and violent entry or disorderly conduct.
U.S. Magistrate Judge Lisa Pupo Lenihan on Tuesday said that, while she believes Powell, 40, is a danger to the community, that adequate conditions can be set to ensure its safety.
She granted Powell, of Sandy Lake, Mercer County, a $10,000 unsecured bond and ordered that she surrender her passport and legally owned guns, and be held on home detention with electronic monitoring.
Smolar asked that Lenihan stay her decision pending appeal, and the judge agreed to do so until 5 p.m. Wednesday.
During the two-hour detention hearing, Fontanez was the only witness. He described to the court how the FBI identified Powell, who wore a pink hat and black jacket with a fur-hoodie during the riot, through images and video on social media; tips and through an interview she gave to the New Yorker.
Smolar played video clips showing Powell, using the battering ram to break the window and again once the mob got inside the building.
In one clip, people inside the building could be heard chanting, “Whose house? Our house,” and “Fight for Trump.”
“We see Rachel Powell on the front lines of this insurrection, correct?” Smolar asked the agent.
“Correct,” he answered.
Fontanez testified that he received information from Powell’s ex-husband that on Jan. 30, she dropped their children off with him and left without providing any information where she was going, other than that she needed “to take care of some things.”
He didn’t hear from her again until Feb. 4, the agent said.
During a search of Powell’s home, Fontanez said investigators found two “go bags,” one that contained ammunition, rope, and duct tape; and another with lighters, throwing stars; and multiple knives.
In addition, at Powell’s home agents found used, paper shooting targets. One had the words, “Guns don’t kill people. I do,” and another said, “Prayer is a good way to meet the lord, but trespassing is faster.”
A bag found in her car when Powell turned herself in to the FBI in New Castle contained a tarp, zip ties, a water bottle and two loaded AK-47 magazines. No weapons were found, Fontanez said.
#BullhornLady #PinkHatLady UPDATE per @BMayo_WTAEAmong what FBI says they found in Rachel Powell's home during a search last week:
-Several destroyed phones-2 "go bags": 1 w/ rope, duct tape, ammo-1 with ninja stars, knives, lighters.-2 AK47 magazines and hand gun magazine pic.twitter.com/K8zzWCrkGP
— David Kaplan (@DKaplanWTAE) February 9, 2021
Her attorney, Michael Engle, argued that Powell has no criminal history, home schools five of her eight children, and has long-standing ties to her community.
“It’s inconceivable she would want to flee for some extended period of time,” he said.
Engle noted that Powell contacted him and turned herself in when charges were filed.
He argued that, although one of the counts against Powell is characterized as a crime of violence, that she did not harm any person that day.
The weapons that Powell owned were legally registered to her, and Engle said she had applied for a concealed carry permit and took classes to learn how to shoot.
In arguing for detention, Smolar said that Powell led efforts to breach the building that day.
“At least five people died, over 100 were injured, and untold damage was caused to the Capitol,” she said. “It was designed to intimidate members of Congress and create fear across the country.”
Lenihan called Powell’s actions “crimes against our democracy. They put our elected officials in fear of their lives and led to five deaths.”
“The weight of the evidence is exceedingly strong,” she said. “The video of this was very disturbing.”
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