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A Pennsylvania mother of eight who smashed a window of the U.S. Capitol with an ice axe and used a bullhorn to direct rioters storming the building on January 6, 2021, was sentenced to nearly five years in prison on Tuesday.

Rachel Marie Powell, 43, of Sandy Lake, Pennsylvania, was sentenced to a 57-month term and 36 months' supervised release by U.S. District Judge Royce C. Lamberth, who also ordered Powell to pay more than $8,000 in restitution, fines and fees. Powell, during a bench trial in July, was found guilty of 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 attack.

"I hate how this feels, like I threw my family in the garbage," Powell reportedly said at her sentencing, according to national media outlets.

Powell, who also has six grandchildren, earned the moniker "Bullhorn Lady" for encouraging rioters to "take the building" and was identified by the online community of open-source intelligence investigators, "Sedition Hunters," as a participant in the deadly siege. She was arrested in February 2021 after evidence, including her cell phone's location at the time and video footage from January 6, which shows Powell telling fellow rioters: "People should probably coordinate together if you're going to take this building," before later saying, "we got another window to break to make in and out easy."

Powell made national headlines and "Bullhorn Lady" became a trending topic on social media after a detailed interview published in The New Yorker, in which she admitted to her participation. She defended using the bullhorn, saying she was trying to prevent people from dying.

Newsweek reached out via email and Powell's website on Tuesday in attempts to reach her or her attorney for comment.

Federal prosecutors said Powell had developed an obsession with keeping former President Donald Trump in power and joined the mob of his supporters who laid siege to the Capitol as Congress met to certify Democratic President Joe Biden's 2020 election victory over the MAGA leader.

Prosecutors asked that Powell be sentenced to eight years in federal prison for her crimes on January 6.

"Her conduct on January 6, 2021, including her violent altercations with law enforcement at the West Plaza, her smashing of a window at the Lower West Terrace with an ice axe and a cardboard pole, her encouragement and instructions to other rioters on how to 'take' the U.S. Capitol, and for her utter lack of remorse," federal prosecutors said in an October 11 sentencing memo.

On Monday, while discussing her looming sentencing with Steve Bannon on pillow magnate Mike Lindell's online channel, Lindell TV, Powell said she was surprised that prosecutors were seeking prison time.

"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."

While she admitted to breaking a window and said she was on the "violent side of the building," Powell said those involved in the January 6 riot are "not insurrectionists, we did not go there with a plan."

"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," Powell said.

As of October, more than 1,185 defendants have been charged in the Capitol siege, according to the Department of Justice.

Uncommon Knowledge

Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.

Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.

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