‘Pink hat lady’ felon from Grove City wants probation for Capitol riot; feds ask for eight years behind bars

The “pink hat lady” who smashed a window at the Capitol with a heavy cardboard tube and an ice ax for all the world to see and then yelled instructions to other rioters through a bullhorn wants probation when a judge sentences her next week.

Prosecutors are seeking eight years behind bars.

Rachel Powell of Grove City, a 43-year-old mother of eight, says she’s remorseful for what she did.

She says her children need her at home. Her lawyer also said she suffers from post-traumatic stress disorder from a chaotic upbringing he described as “like something from ‘Oliver Twist’” that left her easily manipulated by someone like former President Donald Trump.

But prosecutors say she deserves 96 months in prison on her conviction at trial on nine counts related to the breach on Jan. 6, 2021, in support of Trump’s repeated lies.

The sentencing range is 87 to 108 months, so 96 months is a fair term in the middle, prosecutors said.

Powell, formerly of Sandy Lake in Mercer County, earned a measure of minor fame — or infamy — during and after the riot. Wearing a distinctive pink hat, she stormed the Capitol, shoved bike racks against police, smashed a window, then shouted to other rioters about how best to penetrate the building.

She’s been alternately known as the “pink hat lady” or the “bullhorn lady” ever since.

She also made incriminating statements on Facebook about legal avenues to overturn the election being a “dead end,” gave an interview to The New Yorker while the FBI was searching for her and then defied judge’s orders after her arrest.

Powell now says she’s sorry — at least in court papers.

“Powell is remorseful for her outrageous conduct that day,” said her lawyer, Nicholas Smith, in a sentencing memo. “At sentencing, she will apologize to law enforcement and members of Congress and their staff. She is eager to reimburse the Architect of the Capitol for the property damage she caused.”

Smith is asking for three years of probation to include two years of home detention, 200 hours of community service and a $2,000 restitution order.

He said Powell has eight children from a 2000 marriage ranging in age from 12 to 26. The three youngest live with her and her new partner in Grove City. If she goes to jail, Smith said, her 15-year-old will be left in charge of the kids.

Smith also said Powell has a lot of well-wishers in her community who can attest to her giving nature, such as her trips to Mexico through her church to help out in an orphanage there.

“Rachel Powell made exceptionally poor decisions on January 6,” Smith acknowledged, but shouldn’t go to prison.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Lucy Sun countered that Powell was an “active and enthusiastic participant” in the insurrection and should be locked up for a long time.

She said Powell was one of the first rioters to break through onto Capitol grounds near the Peace Circle and at the West Plaza pushed against barricades while encouraging other rioters to attack police.

She climbed up the Lower West Terrace and entered the Capitol through a broken window. Later she used an ice ax and a “battering ram” — a length of thick, heavy cardboard tubing — to break another window and then exhorted rioters through her bullhorn.

“After the riot, instead of remorse, Powell continued to call for political violence,” Sun said. “A 96-month sentence reflects the gravity of Powell’s conduct, her complete lack of remorse, and the need to deter Powell and others from ever again using violence in pursuit of their political goals.”

In the months leading up to the riot, Powell went on social media to encourage violence, at one point telling others that she had brought weapons to another election rally in Washington.

She repeatedly spread Trump’s election lies, saying Joe Biden could not have won Pennsylvania. She talked about going to legislators’ homes to intimidate them into supporting Trump. She described surveilling the home of one female legislator in Pennsylvania with other Trump supporters and discussed making sure they had the right home.

“We will do what we want and there’s nothing the gov can do to stop us,” she wrote on Dec. 6, a month before the riot.

After the attack, she posted the next day that “we have given you all a chance to help us settle this peacefully. We have been patient. The time is up.”

She also bragged about her actions and denounced detractors who suggested that police let the rioters into the Capitol. In one post, she said, “It was a f___ war to get in. If you were not there then STFU.”

Sun said Powell “relished her participation in the battle against police” but later tried to say she was a victim of police brutality. As recently as last month, Sun said, she was repeating that claim on social media.

In one posting from Sept. 11, Powell said, “Why should I go to jail?” and complained that she’s already been held for more than two years on house arrest and missed her daughter’s wedding.

“Over what?” she said. “A broken window?”

She also said she’s been convicted of misdemeanors, ignoring the fact that she is a federal felon.

While Powell’s lawyer says she has shown remorse, Sun said her recent postings make it clear she is not sorry.

“Powell is free to cast herself as a victim and refuse to accept responsibility for her actions on January 6,” she said. “But the fact that Powell sees nothing wrong with engaging in criminal conduct in pursuit of her political goals should give this court concern that she will continue to do so unless she is deterred by a significant sentence.”

Judge Royce Lamberth is set to impose the sentence on Tuesday.

Trump, meanwhile, is facing his own criminal cases in four prosecutions, one of them on charges of trying to overturn the election.