WASHINGTON (AP) — A Pennsylvania girl linked to a far-right extremist motion was sentenced on Thursday to 3 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 in the course of the riot on Jan. 6, 2021.
A federal jury convicted Williams in November of six expenses, together with a felony depend of civil dysfunction, after a two-week trial. However 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.
Prosecutors had requested U.S. District Choose Amy Berman Jackson to condemn Williams to seven years and three months in jail.
“In every single place she went, Williams acted as an accelerant, exacerbating the mayhem. The place others turned again, she pushed ahead,” prosecutors wrote in a courtroom submitting.
Protection legal professionals requested a time period of imprisonment of 1 12 months and in the future for Williams, who was 22 in January 2021.
“In some respects, she is starkly completely different from the typical January sixth defendant – notably given her youth and that she is a feminine,” they wrote. “In different methods she is much 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 3 years of supervised launch after her jail time period and ordered her to pay $2,000 in restitution, in keeping with the U.S. legal professional’s workplace for the District of Columbia.
Williams was an ardent supporter of the white nationalist “Groyper” motion led by web character Nick Fuentes, in keeping with prosecutors. They mentioned Williams was “obsessed” with Fuentes and fixated on baseless claims — amplified by Fuentes — that the 2020 presidential election was stolen from Donald Trump.
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Williams’ attorneys argued that her political opinions should not be a think about her sentencing. They mentioned the First Modification protects her curiosity in Fuentes and his “Groyper Military” of followers.
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 referred to as Kanye West, who’s now referred to as Ye.
Different Fuentes followers have been charged with Jan. 6-related crimes, together with former UCLA pupil Christian Secor, who waved a flag related to Fuentes’ motion when he entered the Capitol. Secor was sentenced final 12 months to 3 years and 6 months in jail.
Williams wore a inexperienced “I’m with Groyper” T-shirt when she traveled to Washington, D.C., together with her father and his associates on Jan. 6. They attended Trump’s “Cease the Steal” rally earlier than heading to the Capitol. Williams entered the constructing by way of 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 way of police traces contained in the Capitol, prosecutors mentioned. Getting into Pelosi’s principal convention room, she stole a gavel and inspired one other rioter to take a laptop computer from atop a desk, in keeping with 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 hitch her in pushing towards officers.
Williams spent roughly 90 minutes within the Capitol. After leaving, she climbed on the roof of a parked police automotive.
Williams destroyed proof earlier than her arrest, deleting her social media accounts, resetting her iPhone and utilizing software program to wipe her laptop, in keeping with prosecutors.
Williams bragged on-line that she stole Pelosi’s gavel, laptop computer and arduous drives and that she “gave the digital gadgets, or tried to present them, to unspecified Russian people,” prosecutors mentioned in a June 2022 courtroom submitting.
“To this point, neither the laptop computer nor the gavel has been recovered,” they added.
A witness described as a former romantic companion of Williams advised the FBI that she meant to ship the stolen laptop computer or arduous drive to a pal in Russia who deliberate to promote it to Russia’s international intelligence service. However the witness mentioned Williams saved the gadget or destroyed it when the switch fell by way of, in keeping with 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.