The woman believed to be responsible for stealing House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s laptop during the storming of Capitol Hill on the 6th of January has been arrested. The woman, identified as one Riley June Williams, was arrested on Monday from the Middle District of Pennsylvania.
Riley June Williams has been charged with knowingly entering or remaining in a restricted building or grounds without lawful authority and violent entry and disorderly conduct on Capitol Hill grounds.
The FBI said in a court filing on Sunday that they were informed by a witness claiming to be her former ‘romantic partner’ that Williams “intended to send the computer device to a friend in Russia, who then planned to sell the device to SVR, Russia’s foreign intelligence service.”
An affidavit filed by an FBI agent noted, “[The witness] also claimed to have spoken to friends of Williams, who showed [the witness] a video of Williams taking a laptop computer or hard drive from Speaker Pelosi’s office. [The witness] stated that Williams intended to send the computer device to a friend in Russia, who then planned to sell the device to SVR, Russia’s foreign intelligence service.”
However, the transfer does not appear to have taken place and Riley June Williams still has the laptop or has destroyed it. It is alleged that she can be seen multiple times in a video that was posted to YouTube. Law enforcement officials showed the video to her mother who positively identified her. Her mother told the Harrisburg Police that she had developed a sudden interest in ‘far right message boards’.
Apart from Nancy Pelosi’s laptop, multiple other documents and electronics were stolen by protesters as well, raising national security concerns. The protesters had managed to breach premises and enter Pelosi’s office during the storming of Capitol Hill. Numerous arrests have been made in connection to the incident.
