In court on Friday, before the case was handed over to the jury, Assistant US Attorney Michael Gordon pored over Barnett’s Jan. 6 account and pierced holes in his testimony, visibly angering Barnett.
Barnett, who had said a day earlier that he would apologize to Pelosi, D-Calif., if he were in court, admitted during cross-examination that when a police officer told him he had to get out of his office, he responded, «You have to renounce communism.»
Barnett also admitted to telling an official on Capitol Hill: “We are in a war. You have to choose a side. Don’t be on the wrong side or you’re going to get hurt.»
Defending his actions, Barnett said he did not believe he had broken the law on January 6.
«I made some serious mistakes and I’m sorry, but I don’t think I broke the law,» Barnett said Friday. «I feel like a f—— idiot.»
Asked Monday whether the decision to testify could have backfired on Barnett given that the jury needed only a few hours to convict his client on all charges, McBride said: «We thought the decision to testify was unequivocally the correct one.» .
«He had a story that needed to be told,» McBride said. “People needed to know why he came here, what his intentions were, and what he did while he was here. The man got up there and told the truth, and it didn’t work for him, but at the end of the day we don’t regret that choice.»
Two years after the riots, the FBI and Justice Department investigation into the attack on the Capitol has yielded 900 arrests and nearly 500 guilty pleas.
dareh gregorian contributed.
