Pittsburgh – Federal prosecutors on Wednesday appealed for the release of a Pennsylvania woman accused of using a large pipe to break a window in the US Capitol on January 6. and giving instructions to other rebels on how to take the building.
A magistrate found that Rachel Marie Powell – whom the FBI says is the woman in a pink hat shown in a video shouting instructions through a megaphone – represents a “danger to the community”, but that she could be released on unsecured bail from $ 10,000 with home detention and electronic monitoring.
US magistrate judge Lisa Pupo Lenihan issued the decision after Powell’s detention hearing on Tuesday, but postponed her release to give the government time to appeal.
Prosecutors said Powell should stay locked before the trial.
Powell, 40, the mother of eight children of Sandy Lake, is “one of the main participants in the most violent uprising in occur at the US Capitol in more than 200 years “and” fueled a situation that threatened the peaceful transfer of power in the United States, “federal prosecutors wrote on Wednesday.
Powell’s lawyer, Michael Engle, argued in court that Powell has no criminal record, poses no risk of escape and did not physically harm anyone during the insurrection.
An FBI testimony said Powell was with a group inside the Capitol and provided detailed instructions on the building’s layout, telling rioters that “they should ‘coordinate if you are going to take over this building'”. Powell also noted that they “have another window to break,” said the statement.
“She was not a spectator; she perpetrated violence and encouraged others to do the same – all in order to overcome law enforcement, intimidate public officials and undermine the constitution and peaceful transfer of presidential power, “prosecutors said on Wednesday.
Authorities said a search of Powell’s home revealed several broken cell phones and two “go bags”, one with ammo, rope and tape and the other with ninja stars, knives and lighters. A bag found in Powell’s car had a tarp, zipper and two chargers for an AK-47 rifle, officials said.
Powell was accused of violent entry or disorderly conduct, obstruction, depredation of government property, entering a restricted building and being in that building with a dangerous weapon.