A woman who according to federal prosecutors was leading a crowd with a megaphone during the riot at the Capitol riots last month was arrested Thursday and charged with multiple federal crimes.
Rachel Marie Powell was arrested in Pennsylvania, according to documents posted on the Justice Department’s website. Powell faces five charges, including robbery of government property, entry into a restricted area with a dangerous weapon, and obstruction of an official proceeding, a felony that carries up to 20 years in prison.
According to a CBS affiliate in Pittsburgh, Powell was arrested Thursday night in New Castle, Pa.
The FBI identified Powell as a woman who was seen on viral social media and in news images revealing instructions to riot police who broke into the Capitol building on Jan. 6. According to an affidavit from an FBI investigator, Powell was identified with the help of an anonymous council after the office posted pictures of her of the Capitol riot in a wanted poster.
The affidavit shows photographs of a woman wearing a pink hat who helped use a large pipe as a battering ram to break into the Capitol building.
It’s unclear if Powell has a lawyer.
Earlier this week, The New Yorker magazine published an interview with Powell in which he admitted that she was the woman who used the megaphone in the revolt videos that were widely seen. He told the media that he had not been part of any conspiracy to break into the Capitol.
“It wasn’t part of a plot, organized, whatever it was,” Powell said. “I don’t have a military background … I’m a mother with eight children. That’s all. I work. And I garden. And I raise chickens. And I sell cheese at the farmers market.”
“Listen, if someone doesn’t help and direct people, then more people die?” he added when asked about his behavior during the incident. “It simply came to our notice then. I can’t say more. I need to talk to a lawyer. “