On Jan. 6, 2021, Mr. Barnhart, who had additionally educated as a bodybuilder, was on the Capitol to assist President Donald J. Trump, who had made unfounded assertions that the 2020 election was stolen from him.
When Mr. Trump wrote on Twitter concerning the want for a powerful turnout on the Jan. 6 rally, Mr. Barnhart tweeted in response, “I’ll be there.”
Round 4:47 p.m. that day, one other rioter, Jack Wade Whitton, a fencing contractor from Georgia who additionally pleaded responsible in September 2022 to assaulting officers, started hitting a Metropolitan Police Division officer with a crutch, prosecutors stated.
Mr. Barnhart, Mr. Whitton and a 3rd rioter dragged the officer down the steps of the constructing “in a inclined place” and right into a crowd that additionally beat him, the Justice Division stated. Mr. Barnhart dragged that officer by the neck of his ballistic vest.
“Because of this assault,” prosecutors stated, “the officer sustained bodily accidents, together with bruising and abrasions.”
Minutes later, Mr. Barnhart joined different rioters who had been slamming riot shields right into a line of law enforcement officials, prosecutors stated.
“Barnhart pushed different rioters from behind, supporting them and propelling them ahead into the road of officers,” the Justice Division stated. “He then approached the road of officers and struck at them with the bottom of a flagpole.”