A mother of eight Pennsylvania children who is on the run from authorities for her role in the Capitol riot has been arrested by the FBI, according to federal prosecutors.
Rachel Marie Powell of Sandy Lake, Pennsylvania, “is in custody,” Margaret Philbin, a spokesman for the Pittsburgh US Attorney’s Office, told The Daily Beast.
Powell, 40, was arrested at New Castle Thursday night, according to Philbin. She was not immediately available for comment and does not yet have an attorney in court records.
The cheese and yogurt supplier – nicknamed “ the megaphone star ” after a video appeared showing Powell shouting orders during the January 6 loot of the Capitol – was apparently not home when the FBI raided her home Thursday afternoon. Neighbors told local news reporters that Powell and her family had lived there for several years, but mostly stayed on their own.
According to a complaint filed in federal court on Friday, Powell is charged with obstruction, robbing government property, entering a restricted building with a dangerous weapon, and violent entry / disorderly conduct. She was scheduled to appear in court at 3 p.m.
According to the filing, Powell used a pipe to smash a window in the Capitol, causing more than $ 1,000 in damage. An anonymous tipster first told Powell to the FBI, he explains, giving agents the link to Powell’s Facebook profile. There, agents were able to match photos of Powell wearing a signature set of earmuffs with those from the Capitol.
After being seen on video during the January 6 riot in a pink hat and sunglasses, Powell got her signature name, although she was also known as ‘Pink Hat Lady’.
“People probably need to confer if you’re going to take this building,” Powell called through a shattered window to a group of insurgents in the Capitol. “We still have a window to break into to make getting in and out easy.”
Powell, who became the subject of her own FBI “Wanted” poster, agreed to interview Ronan Farrow from The New Yorker before she was charged.
Originally from Anaheim, California, Powell told Farrow that she acted spontaneously on January 6 and was “ not part of a plot. ”
“I don’t have a military background … I’m a mother of eight,” she said. “That’s it. I work. And I garden. And raise chickens. And sell cheese at a farmers market … Listen, if someone doesn’t help and doesn’t lead people, more people die? That’s all I’m going to say about that. I can’t say more. I need to talk to a lawyer. “
Powell apparently became radicalized over the past year: When she didn’t occupy a table at local farmers’ markets, Powell used Facebook to post on topics like yoga and organic food. Recently, however, she began to express increasingly extreme political views, including several conspiracy theories about COVID-19 and unfounded doubts about the validity of the 2020 presidential election.
‘It is not so [sic] late to wake up, say no and restore the freedoms, ”she wrote on Facebook last May.
Powell was reportedly influenced by Infowars founder Alex Jones, who claimed the Sandy Hook shooting was a hoax, and former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani, who made numerous false claims while serving as Donald’s personal attorney. Trump.
Deborah Lemons, Powell’s mother, told Farrow that Powell was held at gunpoint during a carjacking when she was a child. She said she was “surprised” that her daughter – with whom Lemons has had a tense relationship for the past few years – would participate in the Capitol riot because she was on the wrong side of violence in the past.
“She knows very well what it’s like to wonder if she’s going to lose her life,” said Lemons.