US Capitol Riots: Arizona QAnon supporter leads pro-Trump mob

A horned Arizona QAnon supporter who stood at the Senate dais moments after Vice President Mike Pence delivered his rebuke to Donald Trump and an insurrectionist who put his feet on Pelosi’s desk and ‘scratched his balls’ in her office were among the violent mob of Trump supporters who stormed the US Capitol Wednesday – sending the seat of the federal government into lockdown and temporarily halting the certification of Joe Biden’s victory in its tracks.

The heavily-tattooed Trump supporter sporting horns, a fur hat and face paint, who has become a fixture at recent right-wing rallies while decked out in his signature attire, has been identified as 32-year-old Jake Angeli – the man often dubbed the QAnon Shaman.

Angeli was at the front of a group of agitators who broke into the Capitol and faced off with DC police who desperately tried in vain to protect the establishment.  

He then made his way into the Senate chamber where he was seen shouting and posing for photos on the dais.

Meanwhile, a 60-year-old Arkansas man entered House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s office, where he boasted that he ‘wrote her a nasty note, put my feet up on her desk and scratched my balls.’ 

Richard ‘Bigo’ Barnett later – who claims he will run for Arkansas governor in 2022 – told the New York Times he ‘fell’ into her office after he was pictured making himself comfortable in Pelosi’s chair, as he showed off a personalized envelope he stole as a souvenir. 

Other key figures in the riot, who are yet to be identified, include a looter in a bobble hat who smiled for a photo as he made off with Nancy Pelosi’s lectern. 

Outside the chaos in the capitol, another vocal Trump supporter Leigh Ann Luck, dressed up as the Statue of Liberty as she shouted in protest against Biden’s victory.  

Angeli flexed his left arm as he stood behind the dais in the Senate chamber where just moments earlier Vice President Mike Pence and Nancy Pelosi had stood.

He was flanked by a
n American flag and his fellow rioters took photos of him on their smartphones. 

The ‘Qanon Shaman’ was also seen screaming in the chamber and clutching a megaphone. 

In Pelosi’s office, 60-year-old Barnett posed for a photo reclining in the House Speaker’s chair before he later returned to the crowd of supporters outside and flashed a hand-written envelope he had looted. 

Barnett, who calls himself Bigo, flashed the envelope to New York Times reporter Matthew Rosenberg which was addressed to The Honorable Billy Long and had Pelosi’s signature on it.

‘I didn’t steal it,’ he claimed, saying he ‘left a quarter on her desk’.

‘And I left her a note on her desk that says “Nancy Bigo was here you b**ch”.’ 

He also denied storming her office, claiming he politely knocked on her office door and was pushed in by other protesters. 

‘I’ll probably be telling them this is what happened all the way to the DC jail,’ he said.  

Both men are vocal supporters of the president and have been spotted at other protests in support of Trump’s repeated unfounded claims that the election was stolen from him. 

Angeli has become a prominent figure at pro-Trump rallies, always sporting his signature outfit of fur, horns, face paint and bare chest, where he has spouted off about QAnon conspiracy theories. 

Most recently he has been active at Arizona rallies calling for the results of the presidential election to be overturned, after Trump has refused to concede and pushed unfounded claims of voter fraud ever since he lost to Joe Biden. 

At a pro-Trump rally at the Arizona State Capitol in February, he held aloft a banner reading ‘Q Sent Me’ in reference to QAnon.  

He was also seen at reopen Arizona rallies protesting against lockdowns put in place to slow the spread of COVID-19.   

In one photo posted on his Facebook account in November, where he calls himself Yellowstone Wolf, Angeli is seen shaking hands with Rudy Giuliani, Trump’s personal attorney – who hours before the violence kicked off encouraged supporters to pursue a ‘trial by combat’.  

He has also posted about numerous conspiracy theories including a video claiming there is a ‘globalist plot for world domination thru the plandemic & its numerous different agendas’.   

Angeli has previously admitted his belief in QAnon started after reading conspiracy theories on the internet. 

‘At a certain point, it all clicked in a way,’ he said in an interview in February, reported AZCentral. 

‘Oh, my God. I see now the reality of what’s going on.’ 

QAnon is the debunked extreme right wing conspiracy theory that claims Satan-worshipping pedophiles are plotting against Trump and are running a global child sex trafficking ring.

An undated profile for Angeli on Backstage.com shows the 32-year-old was a singer, screenwriter and actor. 

Barnett has also bought into Trump’s unfounded claims that the election has been ‘stolen’ from him and has been spotted at other Stop The Steal rallies including one in Bentonville in November.  

In a November post on Facebook, where he goes by the alias George Reincarnated Patton, Barnett claimed he will run for governor of Arkansas in 2022 saying he will ‘be running on the COMMON SENSE platform’. 

He has also shared images of the Gadsden flag snake – which is regarded as a racist symbol – and boasts of being a white nationalist.

In several photos, he is seen posing with semi-automatic rifles.  

The National Guard was deployed to the US Capitol Wednesday afternoon after a mob of Trump supporters stormed the building and violently clashed with police.

One woman has died after she was shot in the chest when she reportedly tried to climb through a window. 

It is not clear who shot the woman, meanwhile dozens of police officers have also been injured in the violence.  

At least one explosive device was found near the Capitol amid the violence, according to law enforcement sources.

As protesters continued to occupy the Capitol hours after the violence unfolded, President-elect Joe Biden called for the ‘mob to pull back’ and said the uprising bordered on sedition.

Trump – after remaining silent for much of the afternoon – told his ‘very special’ supporters inside the Capitol that he loves them and understands their pain but urged them ‘to go home’.

He had initially urged his supporters to march to the Capitol after a rally earlier in the afternoon before only asking them to remain peaceful when violence broke out.

As the protesters broke down police barricades and stormed into the Rotunda, Mike Pence, Nancy Pelosi and other congressional leaders were whisked to safety.

Lawmakers cowering inside the House Chamber were urged to put on gas masks as tear gas was fired in the Rotunda.

Officers at the front door of the chamber had their guns drawn as a protester tried to break down the door.

For those fleeing, it was a race against time: Protesters were getting in as quickly as members of Congress could get out.