WASHINGTON — A Jan. 6 defendant who smashed a Capitol window with an ice ax and a giant cardboard tube before she used a bullhorn to instruct rioters on how to "take" the building — and who recently received a personalized hat from former President Donald Trump — was sentenced to more than four years in prison Tuesday.
Rachel Powell, a Pennsylvania woman in her early 40s, mother of eight and grandmother of six, was convicted on nine federal counts in July after a bench trial.
In emotional comments at her sentencing, Powell said she didn’t want there to be any doubt about what she thought of what she did.
"I am deeply ashamed of my conduct,” she said. “I regret it, and it will never happen again.”
Federal prosecutors sought eight years in federal prison for Powell, who ultimately got 57 months, saying that she developed an “obsession with keeping former President Trump in power” after his 2020 election loss and that she even “conducted surveillance at a female legislator’s home” before she took part in the Capitol attack.
After she pushed against a police line at the Capitol, summoned other rioters to join her and others and smashed the window on Jan. 6, 2021, Powell used a bullhorn to try to bring order to the chaos. “People should probably coordinate together if you’re going to take the building," she yelled.
In the immediate aftermath of Jan. 6, she said it "WAS F--KING WAR TO GET IN," that rioters “weren’t f--king welcomed in” and that police “had to retreat into the building and fight back because patriots were relentless.” But she has changed her tune since then, prosecutors noted, and has painted a picture of police brutality.
Powell has been on home detention since she violated her pretrial conditions of release.
Powell said at her sentencing Tuesday that she feels remorse and regret every day.
“My conduct was disgraceful,” Powell said. “I apologize to my family for the hell they have endured because of me.”
Powell said that politics had taken “a very dark turn” in the country and that she gave into the toxic environment.
“I succumbed to those feelings, and it led to disaster,” she said.
U.S. District Judge Royce Lamberth said that Powell “said all the right things today” but that he wished she had said those things sooner.
He said that Powell “skated along for a long time” even with her violations of her pretrial release conditions but that he would allow her to surrender after the holidays, just before the third anniversary of her crimes.
