By Hannah Rabinowitz
Nine months after the US Capitol riot, a Pennsylvania woman has been formally charged with stealing and then selling or disposing of a laptop from House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s office.
An indictment unsealed on Thursday against Riley Williams accuses the 22-year-old of stealing a laptop from Pelosi’s office and then ultimately getting rid of it. Prosecutors also charged her with resisting police. She has not yet entered a plea.
Prosecutors had been in plea negotiations with Williams, but last month indicated in court that those talks had broken down and that the government was preparing for a trial.
According to the FBI, Williams took a video during the riot of an HP laptop on a desk in Pelosi’s office. A woman, whom prosecutors claim is Williams, says, “Dude, put on gloves,” and a gloved hand grabs the laptop off the desk. The FBI alleges that a social media account with the user name “Riley” posted about having stolen from Pelosi and having taken Pelosi’s “hard drives.”
In court documents, prosecutors noted claims by a tipster that Williams intended to send the laptop to Russia, and said those claims were still under investigation. Williams has denied the accusations against her. In January, Williams’ lawyer told the court that the allegations “came in part from a former abusive boyfriend” who has “threatened” her.
It is unclear how much intelligence value the laptop might have. Pelosi deputy chief of staff Drew Hammill tweeted in January that a computer was stolen from a conference room and that it “was only used for presentations.”
The-CNN-Wire
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