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FBI raids home of suspect ID'd by video

Rachel Powell, of Sandy Lake, Pa., uses a bullhorn to talk to passing cars while protesting stay-at-home orders and the shutdown of non-essential businesses due to the coronavirus pandemic outside the Mercer County Courthouse, on April 20, 2020, in Mercer, Pa. Federal agents on Thursday, Feb. 4, 2021, were at the home of Powell, who told a magazine this week she was at the U.S. Capitol last month during the riot by supporters of then-President Donald Trump, a TV station reported. WKBN-TV said investigators were conducting court-authorized activity at her home.
Woman claims to be 'pink hat lady' from Capitol riot

The FBI field office in Pittsburgh confirmed a raid Thursday afternoon at the home of a former West Sunbury woman who admitted she took part in the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol.

The home of Rachel Powell is in Sandy Lake, Mercer County.

“We are conducting court-authorized law enforcement activity at that location,” said Catherine Policicchio, public affairs officer with the FBI in Pittsburgh. “We are seeking the whereabouts of Rachel Powell.”

While other outlets have reported that FBI agents did not locate Powell in the raid, Policicchio said she could not confirm that information.

Powell participated in an interview with Ronan Farrow for an article that appeared earlier this week in The New Yorker, in which she admitted she was the woman known as the “pink hat lady” and “bullhorn lady” in pictures and videos of the attack on the Capitol in Washington, D.C.

Powell, whose identity has not been verified by the Eagle, has not been charged.

She declined to give Farrow her location, saying she was laying low because of an FBI “wanted” poster containing multiple photos of her at the Capitol on Jan. 6.

The woman in videos could be seen using a makeshift battering ram along with others to try and break a window at the Capitol as well as a bullhorn to instruct rioters outside on how to get inside.

The New Yorker article stated that Powell moved to West Sunbury at age 15.

The Butler County Bureau of Elections has records of a Rachel M. Powell, who was born in 1980, last voting in the county in 2008.

According to The New Yorker article, Powell has eight children.

She was a subcontractor for Cherish Creamery in Reynoldsville, Jefferson County, where she bought goat cheese and yogurt to sell at wine and cheese shows, farmers markets and other events.

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