A U.S. Capitol Police officer, left, directs Eric Barber out of the House Speaker’s suite of offices on Jan. 6, 2021, in this still image from closed-circuit video included in the defense’s sentencing memorandum in Barber’s misdemeanor case. Barber was among those pardoned by President Donald Trump earlier this year, and he is now seeking compensation for his prosecution. (Photo provided)

PARKERSBURG — A Wood County resident convicted and then pardoned of misdemeanor charges related to the Jan. 6 U.S. Capitol riot is among hundreds seeking compensation from the federal government over their prosecution.

Eric Barber, a former Parkersburg City Council member, said the government needs to compensate him and other Jan. 6 defendants “for the harms they did to us and our families and our lives.”

Barber pleaded guilty in December 2021 to one count of parading, demonstrating or picketing in a Capitol building and one count of theft, the result of him taking a charging station from a C-SPAN media stand. He was sentenced the following June to 45 days in prison on the parading, demonstrating or picketing charge and two years probation on the theft count. He served another seven days after violating the terms of his probation.

After being inaugurated for his second term in January, President Donald Trump pardoned more than 1,500 people charged with crimes in the incident, Barber included.

Paperwork seeking compensation was filed last week for Barber and nearly 400 other Jan. 6 defendants by Mark McCloskey, a St. Louis personal injury attorney who gained national notoriety in 2020 when he and his wife brandished guns outside their home as a group of Black Lives Matter protesters marched in their neighborhood. Both eventually pleaded guilty to misdemeanor charges.

McCloskey said Barber is seeking $2 million, “which I find to be very light under the circumstances. I don’t think you or I would trade that kind of abuse for $2 million.”

Federal law enforcement deployed “a S.W.A.T. team” to arrest Barber on the misdemeanor warrants, McCloskey said.

He was later physically assaulted by federal law enforcement officials and suffered a variety of financial and personal losses as a result of the prosecution, according to both Barber and McCloskey.

McCloskey said the response by federal law enforcement and courts was disproportionate to the actions of what he described as a “very peaceful protest” until police forces started throwing flash bang grenades into the crowd. What followed, he said, was “an active attempt to destroy people’s lives.”

“Virtually all of my clients were told, ‘I’m not sentencing for what you did, but to send a message,'” McCloskey said.

The riot left more than 100 police officers injured as a group of Trump supporters — some armed with poles, bats and bear spray — overwhelmed law enforcement, shattered windows and sent lawmakers and aides into hiding.

Barber said he and other Jan. 6 defendants are thankful for the pardons Trump granted but that’s only a portion “of the restorative justice we’re seeking.

“Most people will never recover financially or otherwise without some more help from the president of the United States,” he said. “It’s not right. And the government needs to be forthright and honest about how they handled the Jan. 6 cases.”

McCloskey said the paperwork he filed last week is the first step in a federal tort action.

It gives the agencies six months to respond and decide whether to provide the compensation sought. If not, the plaintiff then has six months to file a lawsuit.

Filings were made on Barber’s behalf with the U.S. Department of Justice, FBI, U.S. Marshals Service and the Federal Bureau of Prisons, McCloskey said.