Barry Ramey seen outside the Capitol on Jan. 6 (via FBI court filing).
The FBI agent who was allegedly menaced by a Florida Proud Boys member accused of using chemical spray against police at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6 is expected to testify at his trial.
Barry Ramey is accused of assaulting two U.S. Capitol Police officers on Jan. 6, as Donald Trump supporters violently clashed with law enforcement while Congress attempted to certify Joe Biden’s win in the 2020 presidential election. Prosecutors say he unleashed a noxious orange substance on the officers, resulting in the first officer “losing ground” against the crowd and the second officer becoming disoriented.
Ramey is charged with civil disorder, which carries a potential five-year prison sentence, and assaulting, resisting, or impeding certain officers using a dangerous weapon, a potential 20-year felony.
More than a year after the Jan. 6 attack, the federal government’s expansive investigation into the riot reached Ramey, and Special Agent Ryan Nougaret left his business card with a “close associate” of Ramey’s during an attempted interview, the probable cause affidavit says.
Ramey’s response, according to prosecutors, was to try to intimidate Nougaret with a phone call and text messages. During the phone call, in which Ramey did not identify himself but was recognized by Nougaret, Ramey allegedly provided Nougaret’s home address and asked the agent if he still lived there. Ramey then apparently hung up when Nougaret asked the caller to identify himself.
Text messages from Ramey allegedly followed. One included the vehicle identification number (VIN) for a car previously owned by Nougaret. When the agent responded to the text with a series of question marks, Ramey allegedly wrote back: “Check that VIN number.;)”.
Ramey does not appear to be facing criminal charges in connection with the alleged texts to Nougaret.
Trouble has continued to find Ramey since his arrest and pretrial detention. He reportedly told the “Political Prisoner” podcast — which casts accused Jan. 6 rioters as “patriotic political prisoners,” according to the podcast’s website — that he was involved in a violent prison fight over right-wing talk show host Tucker Carlson’s nightly program on the Fox News Channel.
“The Jan 6ers liked to watch Tucker Carlson on it, and that was never an issue until a small group of individuals came in and they decided that Tucker Carlson was racist,” Ramey reportedly said. “It was a little confusing to us, but it is what it is in today’s standards and time.”
“We were kind of almost hunted down and told we weren’t going to be watching Tucker anymore,” he allegedly added.
Ramey told the podcast that he had been stabbed in the nose and another Jan. 6 defendant had dislocated a shoulder.
At a pretrial hearing on Monday, U.S. District Judge Dabney Friedrich confirmed that Nougaret is expected to testify for the prosecution at Ramey’s trial, which is set to begin on Feb. 21.
Prosecutors told Friedrich that Nougaret would be sitting at the government’s table, and the judge confirmed that his testimony “will not be expert in nature.” Prosecutors also confirmed that the two officers who were hit with chemical spray allegedly deployed by Ramey are also expected to testify.
The hearing, which was made available via the D.C. District’s public call-in line, was punctuated by occasional outbursts from an apparent supporter of Ramey. During an exchange over trial exhibits, Ramey’s attorney, Farheena Siddiqui, said that the defense wasn’t objecting to the authenticity of certain open-source video that captured the chaos of the day.
“Why?” an angry voice was heard saying. “You’re a terrible lawyer!” the caller added.
A court official apparently realized that there was an issue, as moments later the public line was set to the listen-only function.
While Siddiqui wasn’t privy to the caller’s angry exclamation, the lawyer did have to answer to the judge’s frustration, which she expressed when Siddiqui made an oral request to continue the trial, currently set to begin on Feb. 21. Siddiqui explained that it has been difficult to communicate with Ramey and that her client has not had a chance to review significant portions of discovery related to the case.
“I don’t know why I’m just hearing about this now,” Friedrich, a Trump appointee, said. “Everyone’s known about this trial for a good long time. I could have taken steps to address this situation had I known earlier.”
Friedrich said that she was “frustrated” to hear Siddiqui’s continuance request.
“He’s known about this, you’ve known about this,” the judge said. “You can’t wait until the eleventh hour to ask for a continuance like this.”
Siddiqui explained that it wasn’t her plan to delay the trial and told Friedrich that she was doing everything she could to get him the discovery materials.
“I don’t think you were,” Friedrich replied. “I offered to help. You never got back to us […] I don’t think you’ve done everything you can.”
Friedrich denied the defense attorney’s request.
“There have been a number of Capitol defendants who have been slow-walking trials,” the judge said, noting that Ramey has reviewed discovery specific to his case, which is more important, the judge said, than him having reviewed all the general or “global” discovery applicable to Jan. 6 cases overall.
