"Bigo" Barnett of Gravette bigobarnett.com

Richard “Bigo” Barnett, the Gravette man who became infamous for his role in the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection at the nation’s Capitol, was sentenced in Washington, D.C., today to 54 months in prison.

That’s according to a tweet by WUSA9’s Jordan Fischer who’s in Washington and has been closely following the Jan. 6 cases and covered the sentencing by U.S. District Judge Christopher R. Cooper.

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The 4 1/2-year sentence is less than the seven years and three months the prosecution recommended but significantly more than the defense’s one-year request.

Cooper said Barnett and other rioters tried to “rip [the 12th Amendment] out of the Constitution.” That amendment addresses the presidential election process.

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Cooper said he believed Barnett lied repeatedly during testimony, WUSA9 reported.

Cooper also ordered Barnett to serve three years probation after his sentence, pay $2,000 restitution and $465 in court fees, the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette reported.

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Barnett has been free while awaiting sentencing and was seen freely leaving the courthouse after sentencing today.

A federal jury convicted Barnett in January on eight charges for his actions in the deadly riots, though he was not accused of any violent crimes.

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Barnett became notorious for a picture that showed him posing with one foot propped on a desk in then-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s office. He also was convicted of stealing an envelope from Pelosi’s office. He said he paid for it with a quarter he left behind.

Cooper said he was dismayed at how Barnett had tried to cash in on his notoriety, the New York Times reported..

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“You’re 63 years old; you’re too old for this nonsense,” he said, according to the Times. “But for better or worse you have become one of the faces of Jan. 6, and I think you enjoy it.”

Barnett told the judge that he was “not proud” of his conduct but said it was not “threatening,” CBS News reported.

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“They want me to be remorseful for things I did not do,” CBS quoted Barnett as saying. He also reportedly said he plans to appeal his conviction.

Barnett was accused of, among other things, carrying a high-voltage stun gun attached to a walking staff into the Capitol. During the trial, Barnett testified that he was pushed into the Capitol and decided to look for a restroom but ended up in Pelosi’s office by mistake.

Barnett was not immediately taken into custody. A video posed by Fischer on Twitter showed Barnett declining comment as he walked freely out of the courthouse with his attorney nearby.

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Barnett earlier today hinted at possible grounds for an appeal.

In a presentence ruling earlier today, Judge Cooper refused a defense request to overturn the jury’s verdict and acquit Barnett or grant a new trial.

Barnett had argued he should be acquitted on a theft of government property count “because he bled on the [envelope], which eliminated any conceivable value it had.”

“While the envelope may not have been particularly prized, Barnett’s own actions supported a finding that it had at least some value. … Barnett did not discard the envelope, as one typically would of a soiled item,” the judge wrote. “Instead, he proudly displayed it to fellow rioters outside the Capitol and carried it all the way from the District of Columbia back home to Arkansas.”

The Capitol riots were a failed attempt to prevent Congress from certifying the 2020 presidential election results in which Joe Biden defeated Donald Trump.

Barnett was convicted of these offenses:

*Theft of government property.

*Entering and remaining in the Capitol with a deadly or dangerous weapon, a stun gun.

*Obstruction of an official government proceeding and aiding and abetting.

*Civil Disorder.

*Theft of government property.

*Disorderly and disruptive conduct in a restricted building or grounds with a deadly or dangerous weapon.

*Entering and remaining in certain rooms in the Capitol building.

*Disorderly conduct in a Capitol Building.

*Parading, demonstrating, or picketing in a Capitol building.

In another high-profile Jan. 6 case involving an Arkansan, Conway resident Peter Stager, 43, is scheduled to be sentenced July 24 in Washington. Stager was accused of beating a police officer with a flagpole and has been jailed since shortly after the riots.