Pennsylvania woman found guilty in US Capitol riot case | Politics News

The jury convicts defendant Riley June Williams on six counts, but is split on whether she stole Nancy Pelosi’s laptop.

Pennsylvania woman charged with storming the United States Capitol on January 6, 2021, was convicted of six federal counts, including civil disorder, theft of government property, and assaulting police.

But on Monday, the jury hearing Riley June Williams’ case could not reach a unanimous verdict on two other counts, including whether she stole a laptop from the office of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.

U.S. District Judge Amy Berman Jackson ordered the arrest of Williams, of Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, after the jury returned its verdict.

Williams is part of a estimated at 900 accused arrested in connection with the attack on the Capitol, which took place as the US Congress certified Joe Biden as the winner of the 2020 presidential election.

The attack came following then-President Donald Trump’s ‘Stop the Steal’ rally, where Trump falsely claimed to have won the election ‘by a landslide’.

Williams attended the rally wearing a t-shirt that read “I stand with Groyper,” a reference to a loose group of white supremacists who align themselves with Nick Fuentes, a supporter of the “America First” movement.

She then joined thousands of rioters who entered the Capitol buildingforcing lawmakers to evacuate.

Videos from that day show Williams ordering other rioters to “push, push, push” against federal law enforcement as they attempt to clear the Capitol rotunda. She also directed the rioters to a staircase that leads to Pelosi’s office.

In a June court filing, prosecutors described Williams as part of “the frontline of the rioters,” serving as a leader for others.

“She engaged in repeated physical confrontations and verbal altercations with federal law enforcement officers and directed others to do the same,” prosecutors wrote.

Another video, posted to Williams’ social media, shows what appears to be theft of a Hewlett-Packard laptop from Pelosi’s office. A voice that prosecutors identify as Williams can be heard saying, “Dude, put on some gloves,” before a pair of gloved hands grab the computer.

Williams later bragged on social media about taking Pelosi’s hammer and hard drives. “To date, neither the laptop nor the hammer have been recovered,” prosecutors said.

In the days following the Capitol attack, a witness called the Federal Bureau of Investigation with information that Williams “intended to send the computing device to a friend in Russia, who then planned to sell the device to SVR, the Russian foreign intelligence service”.

Williams denies the allegations, saying they were “fabricated” by an ex-boyfriend.

During his trial, prosecutors linked Williams to an extremist philosophy called “accelerationism,” which views Western governments as corrupt and attempts to hasten their demise.

“She not only specifically sought to prevent Congress from certifying the Electoral College vote, but also to undermine and obstruct the government more generally,” prosecutors wrote in court documents.