"Bullhorn Lady" Rachel Powell sentenced to nearly 5 years on Jan. 6 charges

WASHINGTON (KDKA) -- Rachel Powell, a Mercer County mother of eight accused of using a bullhorn to instruct rioters and smashing a window during the Jan. 6 Capitol attack, was sentenced to nearly five years in prison on Tuesday.

Powell was ordered to serve 57 months in prison followed by 36 months on supervised release, CBS affiliate WUSA reported. She asked for three years of probation while the government sought eight years in prison.

A judge convicted Powell, who became known for her bullhorn and pink hat, of all nine counts in her indictment after he heard testimony without a jury in July.

According to the indictment, Powell stormed into a restricted section of the U.S. Capitol carrying an ax and a large wooden pole. She allegedly destroyed a window in her path, costing more than $1,000 in damage.

Court paperwork says Powell was with a group inside the Capitol and provided detailed instructions on the building's layout, telling rioters that they should "coordinate together if you are going to take this building."

Federal prosecutors have called Powell a "leading participant in the most violent insurrection to occur at the U.S. Capitol in over 200 years," and said she "fueled a situation that threatened the peaceful transfer of power in the United States."

When the feds raided her home in Sandy Lake, they said they also found bags loaded with duct tape, rope cell phones, throwing stars and other weapons.

Powell asked U.S. District Judge Royce C. Lamberth for mercy, saying she succumbed to the "toxic" partisan divide in the country. Lamberth said she had done "everything right today" but it didn't change what happened on Jan. 6 or her lack of remorse since, WUSA reported.