Jan. 6 ‘Bullhorn Lady’ shocked at possible prison term: “It was a mistake”

The Pennsylvania woman known as the “Bullhorn Lady” because she used a bullhorn to direct January 6 rioters storming the Capitol during the 2021 insurrection said she was surprised by the sentence asked by prosecutors against her, which could involve prison time.

Rachel Powell, also known as the “Pink Hat Lady” because of what she was wearing on that day, was identified by the online community of open-source intelligence investigators “Sedition Hunters” and arrested in February 2021.

In late July, the 42-year-old mother of eight and grandmother of six was found guilty on nine charges including felony counts of interfering with officers performing their duties and obstruction of an official proceeding for her role in the January 6 riots. She has been on home confinement since September 2022 after violating the terms of her pretrial release.

According to federal prosecutors, Powell had developed an obsession with keeping Trump in power and had conducted “surveillance” at a lawmaker’s home. She was on the frontlines of the mob that faced Capitol police on January 6, 2021, when she used a bullhorn to encourage rioters to “take the building.”

Prosecutors have asked for Powell to serve eight years in federal prison for her crimes, and a sentencing hearing for the woman is scheduled for Tuesday, October 17.

Talking with Steve Bannon on pillow magnate Mike Lindell’s online channel “Lindell TV” on Monday together with Cynthia Hughes, founder of the nonprofit Patriot Freedom Project, which supports rioters charged in the Capitol riots, Powell said she was surprised that federal prosecutors were asking for a prison sentence.

“I didn’t go deep into the building, I didn’t go into the Senate forum, I didn’t go into anybody’s offices,” she said. “I don’t understand why they’re asking for as much as they are. It doesn’t make any sense to me, because it was a mistake, and I’m sorry.”

She said: “I wish I could pay for it or do something, anything, but eight years—to destroy my family for what, in my opinion, should be a misdemeanor is just insane.”

Three of her children appeared behind Powell and Hughes on air, one of whom was wearing a Make America Great Again hat.

“I did break the window, I did,” Powell later admitted, after Bannon asked her again why she thought the prosecution was asking for eight years in prison. “I was on the violent side of the building, I was on the west side, and after I saw Rosanne Boyland dead at my feet I was obviously irrational, I did break a window,” she said. Boyland was killed in a stampede of fellow rioters.

“But to give somebody eight years for that, in an out-of-control protest…you know, we are not insurrectionists, we did not go there with a plan,” she said.

In a video from January 6, 2021, Powell can be heard telling rioters: “People should probably coordinate together if you’re going to take this building,” and later, “we got another window to break to make in-and-out easy.”

The following day she reportedly wrote that “it was a f****** war to get in” the Capitol building.

Both Powell and Hughes talked of Powell being taken from her children if she’s sentenced to a prison term.

“We’re praying for a miracle tomorrow, that’s what we need,” said Hughes about Tuesday’s sentence hearing.