- “Megaphone” Rachel Powell was released to house arrest pending her trial on charges related to the Capitol siege on January 6.
- Powell, a mother of eight, 40, was filmed wielding a megaphone to direct protesters inside the Capitol.
- The conditions of her release require her to wear a mask at all times in public.
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A woman in Sandy Lake, Pennsylvania, nicknamed “a megaphone” during the January 6 Capitol riots, was released under house arrest, but said she should wear a mask at all times in public.
Judge Beryl Howell offered the mask mandate after it became clear that Powell has repeatedly refused to wear masks in the past, and was actually fired from a job for refusing to wear one. In late December, she posted “I’m blatantly a ‘super promoter'” on Facebook, according to The New Yorker.
Speaking to Powell during his release hearing, Howell said his actions were “so antipatriotic that they make my straight hair curl,” according to the Daily Beast.
Powell, 40, is among more than 250 people accused of connection with the Capitol siege on January 6.
The mother of eight was filmed on Capitol shouting instructions into a megaphone and directing protesters around the Capitol. She was accused of depredation of government property, entry into buildings or restricted areas with a dangerous weapon, entry into buildings or restricted areas and violent entry or disorderly conduct.
According to prosecutors, Powell “took a large pipe and used it as a battering ram to invade the United States Capitol. Then, amplified by a large megaphone, she cornered her fellow protesters and gave instructions on how to ‘take’ the Capitol, including instructions that revealed operational knowledge of the Capitol’s internal layout. “
Prosecutors said she ordered the protesters to “coordinate together if you are going to take this building”, and warned them that they had “another window to break”.
Powell was the subject of an article by Ronan Farrow on February 2 in the New Yorker, in which she identified pictures of her taken on the Capitol on the day of the siege.
Referring to her nickname “megaphone lady”, she said to Farrow: “Listen, if someone doesn’t help and direct people, then more people die? That’s all I’m going to say about it. I can’t say any more. I need to speak with a lawyer. “
At the time of the interview, Powell was considered a fugitive and was arrested two days later, on February 4, after local authorities received a report on her whereabouts.
Prosecutors said his decision to give an interview to The New Yorker instead of giving himself up showed “a disregard for law enforcement objectives”.
In his interview with The New Yorker, Powell admitted that he did not vote for Trump in 2016 and had difficulty deciding whether to vote for Trump in the 2020 elections.
She also noted that Trump’s personal lawyer, Rudy Giuliani, was one of her main sources of information, despite her repeated baseless allegations about electoral fraud.