During Howell’s first public court session in a riot-related case since the Jan. 6 unrest, the judge — a former Senate Judiciary Committee counsel — appeared to be brimming with anger over the assault on the Capitol. She repeatedly emphasized that the rioters not only disrespected the historic building, but were also engaged in an attempt to undermine the Constitution.

“His entitled behavior that he exhibited in videos and photographs when inside the Capitol show a total disregard for the law, a total disregard for the U.S. Constitution,” said Howell, an appointee of President Barack Obama. “This violence disrupted a constitutional function of Congress.”

Howell commented that the events at the Capitol three weeks ago struck fear into the hearts of lawmakers, staff and members of the media. She also said the rioters had transformed life in Washington, leading to the deployment of thousands of National Guard troops and the placement of crowd-control fencing cutting off much of the downtown.

“What happened on that day in the U.S. Capitol was criminal activity that is destined to go down in the history books of our country. … This was not a peaceful protest,” the judge declared. “We’re still living here in Washington, D.C., with the consequences of the violence in which this defendant is accused to have participated.”

The judge seemed particularly provoked by Barnett’s brash, ostentatious behavior, describing as evidence that he was likely to defy any court order about how to behave while on release.

“He not only entered the Capitol without authorization, but he strutted into the office of Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi,” Howell said. “He felt so entitled, he put his feet on the desk. He felt so entitled, he picked up her mail and walked off with a piece of mail.”

While the judge called the charges against Barnett “gravely serious,” they are actually relatively modest. Others who took part in the riot face a slew of charges, including assaulting police with a dangerous weapon, obstruction of Congress and interfering with police during civil disorder. Prosecutors say they’re also considering filing sedition charges against some rioters.

Howell also let loose on Barnett’s attorney, Anthony Siano, over a letter he sent the court earlier this month complaining about the actions of prosecutors relating to their appeal of the ruling by the magistrate in Fayetteville, Ark., that allowed Barnett to be released into the custody of his longtime partner.

Siano accused prosecutors of not disclosing that they planned to request that Barnett be transported from Arkansas to Washington and of not telling the court here that Barnett had hired counsel. The lawyer, based in White Plains, N.Y., also complained that he was not sent a copy of the filings related to the appeal until after Howell granted a stay and ordered Barnett brought to D.C.

The judge, however, said those complaints were unjustified.

“I don’t know how you practice in other jurisdictions, Mr. Siano, but I am telling you right now: throwing around accusations of misconduct by opposing counsel is not acceptable here, when it is without merit,” Howell said. “That accusation is both frivolous and without merit. … If you’re going to continue in this case, I caution you about how you conduct yourself, because that letter was wholly inappropriate.”

During the 90-minute hearing, which the participants joined by video and journalists listened to by telephone, the judge also noted — disapprovingly — a vulgar remark Barnett allegedly made about his actions in Pelosi’s office and a sexist slur he directed at the speaker.

Siano downplayed that as overheated political talk. “He had a political hostility to the speaker,” the defense attorney said.

Barnett appears in photos to have been wearing a stun-gun walking stick while in Pelosi’s office, but Siano stressed that there was no evidence Barnett was violent with anyone during the events at the Capitol. He also said an envelope Barnett allegedly took from Pelosi’s desk was empty.

“And that is supposed to make it better?” the judge responded skeptically.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Mary Dohrmann called the evidence against Barnett “truly incontrovertible.”

“He knew exactly what he was doing,” she said.

Perhaps fortunately for Barnett, future proceedings in his case are unlikely to take place before Howell. If he is indicted or pleads guilty to a felony in the case, it will be put up for random assignment.

The remaining field of possible candidates is crowded and without an obvious frontrunner. Josh Mandel, the former state treasurer who lost the 2012 Senate race, is considering a bid and is expected to run. Jane Timken, the state GOP chair, is also considering running, and several members of the House delegation in the state are weighing their options.

Lt. Gov. Jon Husted and former Rep. Pat Tiberi both announced they would not run. But other statewide officials, including Secretary of State Frank LaRose, are potential candidates as well.

Republicans are favored to retain the seat in a state that has shifted rightward in the past decade: Trump carried it by 8 percentage points in November. But a crowded and potentially messy primary gives Democrats an opening they would not have had if Portman were running for a third term.

Jordan, who was first elected to Congress in 2006, was on the fringes of the House GOP conference for much of his tenure in the chamber, particularly given his fraught relationship with former House Speaker John Boehner, a fellow Ohioan. Jordan became more prominent in the Trump era, and was one of the founders and the first chair of the House Freedom Caucus, a hard-line group of conservatives who ultimately became close Trump allies after he won the presidency.

More recently, House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, who has worked to unite the establishment and far-right wings of the conference, had elevated Jordan to be the top Republican on two committees from where he bolstered Trump against significant allegations of wrongdoing: the Oversight and Judiciary committees. Jordan became ranking member of the House Judiciary Committee in March 2020 — after the president’s first impeachment trial, during which Jordan acted as an unofficial member of his legal team, tasked with defending Trump in public — and would be in line to chair the committee in 2023 if Republicans regain control of the House in next year’s midterm elections.

But Jordan was also one of the most prominent propagators of false and misleading information about the 2020 presidential election, and was among the many House members who objected to the Electoral College results. Five days after the Capitol was ransacked by rioters seeking, unsuccessfully, to stop Congress from ratifying now-President Joe Biden’s Electoral College victory, Trump awarded Jordan the Medal of Freedom.

Jordan represents a duck-shaped, gerrymandered district that snakes from the shores of Lake Erie in northeast Ohio, south and west to near the border with Indiana. Trump won about 67 percent of the vote there last November.

The New York attorney general on Thursday accused the state of drastically undercounting Covid-19 deaths in nursing homes, saying in a stinging new rebuke of Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s administration that the official tally of about 8,500 may be off by as much as 50 percent.

A 76-page report, released Thursday morning by Attorney General Tish James, adds a new layer to the criticism the Democratic governor has faced over the state’s handling of Covid-19 in long-term care facilities — an issue that came to a head in recent days as state lawmakers pressed for the findings of a long-awaited inquiry into the deaths of nursing home residents.

The report, based on preliminary findings, suggests that a larger number of long-term care residents died from the virus than reflected in state Department of Health data and that government guidance requiring admission of Covid-19 patients into nursing homes may have put residents at increased risk of harm. The state has been accused of depressing the total number of deaths by only counting those that occurred in the facilities, leaving out any resident who was transferred to a hospital.

The issue has dogged Cuomo, seen as a national star for his public messaging during the early days of the pandemic, since last summer. His administration has gone to great lengths to claims it did nothing wrong.

A Department of Health report released in July refuted claims that a late March nursing home admission policy led to thousands of Covid-19 deaths at long-term care facilities, suggesting that coronavirus-related deaths in such facilities were largely driven by community spread from infected staff or visitors. Cuomo modified the hospital transfer policy in early May.

In a statement Thursday, the Democratic attorney general said her office’s report “seeks to offer transparency that the public deserves and to spur increased action to protect our most vulnerable residents.”

“Nursing homes residents and workers deserve to live and work in safe environments, and I will continue to work hard to safeguard this basic right during this precarious time,” James said.

Cuomo’s office and the state Department of Health did not immediately respond to the AG’s findings, which were first reported by The New York Times.

The report from James, who until now has avoided such high-profile criticism of the Cuomo administration, creates new discord between the governor and one of the state’s most powerful elected officials. The governor has highlighted his leadership during the pandemic, which has killed more than 40,000 people in New York.

The AG’s report also found that nursing homes’ lack of compliance with an executive order requiring communication with family members caused avoidable pain and distress; insufficient personal protective equipment for nursing home staff put residents at increased risk of harm in some facilities; and insufficient Covid-19 testing for residents and staff in the early stages of the pandemic put residents at increased risk of harm.

The report says that preliminary data suggests that many nursing home residents died from Covid-19 after being transferred from their nursing homes to hospitals — deaths the state has not included in its published total nursing home death data. It also “reflects apparent underreporting to DOH by some nursing homes of resident deaths occurring in nursing homes.”

The AG’s office, which began investigating alleged Covid-19-related neglect at nursing homes in early March, is conducting ongoing investigations into more than 20 facilities.