The FBI is investigating whether a woman who participated in the United States Capitol invasion on January 6 stole a laptop from Mayor Nancy Pelosi’s office and planned to sell it to Russia.
The complaint, which is still under investigation, is detailed in a deposition made by the FBI on Sunday, describing the case against Riley June Williams, a Pennsylvania woman who was seen in a filming of the insurrection inside the Capitol leading crowds.
According to the statement, a person identified as Williams’ former romantic partner called the FBI whistleblower phone number to identify Williams. The informant told the FBI that they spoke to Williams’ friends, who showed them a video of the woman picking up a laptop or hard drive from Pelosi’s office, the statement said.
The informant “stated that Williams intended to send the computer device to a friend in Russia, who planned to sell the device to SVR, Russia’s foreign intelligence service.”
He also notes that, “for unknown reasons”, the sale did not go well and that Williams still has the device or has already destroyed it.
The FBI said in the statement that the complaint is still under investigation. Williams is facing charges related to entering a restricted building and disorderly conduct.
In the days following the January 6 uprising, Pelosi’s chief of staff, Drew Hammill, tweeted that “a laptop that was used only for presentations” was removed from a conference room.
Pelosi’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment and it is not clear whether there is any connection between Hammill’s tweet and the FBI investigation.
Williams was identified in the statement as a woman wearing a brown coat and a black and white zebra print bag on the day of the coup attempt. The FBI described a video in which Williams is physically directing the crowds toward a staircase as she screams, “up there, up there.”
According to the FBI, the staircase shown in the video leads to Pelosi’s office.
In an interview with local police in Pennsylvania, Williams’ father confirmed that he attended the rally on January 6 with his daughter, but the two did not stay together during the day.
According to the statement, Williams “packed his bags, left the house and told his mother he would be gone for a few weeks”. Since then, she has changed her phone number and deleted her Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Reddit, Telegram and Parler accounts, according to the FBI.
A woman who answered a phone number associated with Williams’s mother declined to comment. Williams’ father did not immediately respond to a request for comment.