One of the Trumpist riot police who stormed the U.S. Capitol earlier this month may have stolen the laptop from House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and then tried to sell it to Russian intelligence, according to a criminal complaint.
The extraordinary claim, which is now being investigated by the FBI, comes from a sworn statement describing the criminal case against Pennsylvania woman Riley June Williams. She was recognized in images of the deadly January 6 Capitol riot by an unnamed person who claimed to be her former romantic partner. That person reported to the FBI.
According to the complaint, the images show Williams “leading crowds inside the U.S. Capitol building a staircase” and can be heard repeatedly shouting, “Up, up, up.” The FBI officer who wrote the complaint confirmed with U.S. Capitol police that the ladder shown in the pictures “actually leads to Speaker Pelosi’s office.”
While there appears to be no publicly available image of Williams in Pelosi’s office, the FBI is investigating a complaint that riot police took a laptop or hard drive from the room. Williams’ ex-girlfriend said she had seen a video of Williams grabbing the device and alleged that “she intended to send the computer device to a friend in Russia, who then planned to sell the device to SVR, the service of Russia’s foreign intelligence “
The FBI has no evidence to support the ex-lover’s claim. Regardless of everything, even if a laptop was taken, it doesn’t seem to have made its way into Russian hands; the ex-partner said the deal “fell through for unknown reasons and Williams still owns the computer device or destroyed it.” Pelosi’s assistant, Drew Hammill, noted on Twitter last week that an office laptop had been stolen, but said it was “only used for presentations.”
While the FBI investigates the Russian affair, Williams faces separate charges of entering a restricted building and of disorderly conduct for his actions on the day of the Capitol riots, but he has disappeared.
“It looks like Williams has fled,” the complaint says, noting that Williams’ mother said her daughter “had packed up and left home” and that “she would have left in a couple of weeks.” The FBI complaint continued: “Some time later [the day of the riot]… Williams changed her phone number and deleted what I think were her social media accounts on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Reddit, Telegram and Parler. “
Williams’ mother has identified her daughter in the pictures and said she was suddenly interested in President Trump’s politics and was an active member of several “far-right message boards.”
There is a pending order for his arrest.