Pennsylvania rioter charged in Nancy Pelosi laptop theft sentenced to prison

WASHINGTON — A Pennsylvania lady linked to a far-right extremist motion was sentenced on Thursday to a few years in jail for storming the U.S. Capitol, the place she invaded then-Home Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s workplace with different rioters.

Riley June Williams, 23, of Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, was charged however not convicted of serving to steal a laptop computer from Pelosi’s workplace suite through the riot on Jan. 6, 2021.

(The video within the participant above is from earlier protection)

A federal jury convicted Williams in November of six prices, together with a felony depend of civil dysfunction, after a two-week trial. Nevertheless it deadlocked on two different counts, together with “aiding and abetting” the laptop computer’s theft.

Jurors additionally deadlocked on a cost of obstructing an official continuing, the Jan. 6 joint session of Congress for certifying President Joe Biden’s 2020 electoral victory. Then-Vice President Mike Pence and members of Congress evacuated the Home and Senate chambers when rioters attacked the Capitol.

SEE ALSO: Pennsylvania lady accused of laptop computer theft from Pelosi’s workplace going through new prices

Prosecutors had requested U.S. District Decide Amy Berman Jackson to condemn Williams to seven years and three months in jail.

“All over the place she went, Williams acted as an accelerant, exacerbating the mayhem. The place others turned again, she pushed ahead,” prosecutors wrote in a court docket submitting.

Protection legal professionals requested a time period of imprisonment of 1 yr and at some point for Williams, who was 22 in January 2021.

“In some respects, she is starkly totally different from the typical January sixth defendant – notably given her youth and that she is a feminine,” they wrote. “In different methods she is just like a lot of different January sixth defendants with no prior felony report, that have been caught up with the mob that day, performing on impulse and with out thought to the results of their actions.”

Jackson additionally sentenced Williams to a few years of supervised launch after her jail time period and ordered her to pay $2,000 in restitution, based on the U.S. lawyer’s workplace for the District of Columbia.

Williams was an ardent supporter of the white nationalist “Groyper” motion led by web character Nick Fuentes, based on prosecutors. They stated Williams was “obsessed” with Fuentes and fixated on baseless claims – amplified by Fuentes – that the 2020 presidential election was stolen from Donald Trump.

Williams’ attorneys argued that her political opinions should not be a think about her sentencing. They stated the First Modification protects her curiosity in Fuentes and his “Groyper Military” of followers.

SEE ALSO: 4 alleged Oath Keepers associates discovered responsible of conspiracy in Jan. 6 Capitol assault

Fuentes has used his on-line platform to spew antisemitic and white supremacist rhetoric. In November, former President Trump dined at his Mar-a-Lago membership with Fuentes and the rapper previously often known as Kanye West, who’s now often known as Ye.

Different Fuentes followers have been charged with Jan. 6-related crimes, together with former UCLA scholar Christian Secor, who waved a flag related to Fuentes’ motion when he entered the Capitol. Secor was sentenced final yr to a few years and 6 months in jail.

Williams wore a inexperienced “I am with Groyper” T-shirt when she traveled to Washington, D.C., together with her father and his mates on Jan. 6. They attended Trump’s “Cease the Steal” rally earlier than heading to the Capitol. Williams entered the constructing by the Senate Wing Door two minutes after different rioters breached the doorway.

Williams used males sporting helmets and physique armor like a “human battering ram,” pushing them ahead to interrupt by police traces contained in the Capitol, prosecutors stated. Coming into Pelosi’s primary convention room, she stole a gavel and inspired one other rioter to take a laptop computer from atop a desk, based on prosecutors.

“As the opposite rioter later manipulated the laptop computer and its cords, Williams filmed the theft that she had simply commanded and inspired, and additional instructed the rioter, ‘Dude, placed on gloves!’” prosecutors wrote.

Williams then went to the Rotunda, the place she shouted insults at police and urged different rioters to affix her in pushing in opposition to officers.

Williams spent roughly 90 minutes within the Capitol. After leaving, she climbed on the roof of a parked police automobile.

Williams destroyed proof earlier than her arrest, deleting her social media accounts, resetting her iPhone and utilizing software program to wipe her laptop, based on prosecutors.

Williams bragged on-line that she stole Pelosi’s gavel, laptop computer and exhausting drives and that she “gave the digital gadgets, or tried to provide them, to unspecified Russian people,” prosecutors stated in a June 2022 court docket submitting.

“Thus far, neither the laptop computer nor the gavel has been recovered,” they added.

A witness described as a former romantic associate of Williams advised the FBI that she meant to ship the stolen laptop computer or exhausting drive to a buddy in Russia who deliberate to promote it to Russia’s overseas intelligence service. However the witness stated Williams stored the machine or destroyed it when the switch fell by, based on the FBI.

When the FBI questioned her, Williams denied stealing the laptop computer. She accused an ex-boyfriend of fabricating the allegation.

Williams was taken into custody after the jury convicted her on Nov. 21.

Roughly 1,000 folks have been charged with federal crimes associated to the Capitol riot. Greater than 400 have been sentenced, with over half of them receiving phrases of imprisonment starting from seven days to 10 years.