GRASPING AT STRAWS

Rioter Who Posed in Pelosi’s Office Argues for Release: I Called Her a ‘Biatch,’ Not ‘Bitch’

In his latest motion for pre-trial release, Richard “Bigo” Barnett’s lawyers insist a note he left on the speaker’s desk meant to say, “Hey Nancy Bigo was here biatch.”

The self-described white nationalist who stormed Sen. Nancy Pelosi’s (D-CA) office during the Capitol riot has a new argument for why he shouldn’t be jailed pending trial: He isn’t a threat because he only called the House speaker “a biatch.” In a motion last week to modify Richard “Bigo” Barnett’s bail, his lawyer argued that he isn’t a threat to society because the note he left on Pelosi’s office during the riots was not dangerous. The motion claims that while prosecutors insist the note read “Hey Nancy Bigo was here bitch,” the 60-year-old Arkansas man actually wrote “biatd.”

“On information and belief, the ‘d’ was meant to be two letters, ‘c’ and ‘h’ with the ‘c’ connected to an ‘h’ to spell the word ‘biatch’ which is a slang and less offensive word for ‘bitch,’” the motion states, as first reported by Politico. “As such, Richard now asks this Court to look past and ultimately disregard the government’s distorted representations, which do not rise to the level of showing ‘dangerousness’ and grant Richard pretrial release as required by law and recent court decisions,” the motion added. Barnett, who faces several charges, including theft, after posing for an infamous photo in Pelosi’s office and wielding a stun gun during the Jan. 6 insurrection, has a hearing on May 4.

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Pilar MelendezSenior National Reporter

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