- Dawn Bancroft and Diana Santos-Smith were arrested and charged with connection to the Capitol riot.
- The FBI received a tip from a “selfie” video taken at the siege, according to a statement.
- Fees include entering a restricted building, interrupting government business and disorderly conduct.
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Two women accused of connection to the Capitol siege said they were in the building “looking” for mayor Nancy Pelosi to “shoot her in the goddamn brain,” according to a sworn statement.
Dawn Bancroft and Diana Santos-Smith were arrested earlier this week in Pennsylvania over the deadly uprising on January 6, according to a criminal complaint.
Protesters stormed the Capitol building earlier this month, while Congress was in session to certify the victory of then-elected President Joe Biden. The breach of the building meant that lawmakers and Vice President Mike Pence took shelter there.
Five people died in the insurrection.
On January 12, the Federal Bureau of Investigation received a tip from a “selfie” video allegedly taken by Bancroft during the riot in the United States Capitol building. In the video, Bancroft and another woman that the FBI later identified as Santos-Smith were shown “in the process of attempting to leave the US Capitol building in Washington, DC,” according to the statement.
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“We invaded Capitol … we entered, we did our part,” Bancroft said in the video, according to the criminal complaint. “We were looking for Nancy to shoot her in the brain, but we haven’t found her.”
About a week after the FBI received the complaint, of which it did not identify a source, investigators interviewed Santos-Smith and Bancroft. Santos-Smith initially told investigators that she did not physically enter the Capitol building, but admitted that she lied after the agents presented her with the aforementioned video. Bancroft said that she entered the building.
Santos-Smith said she and Bancroft attended the protest outside the Capitol with no intention of entering the building until she heard people shouting “they are letting us in”, and told investigators that she thought the protesters were being allowed to enter the Capitol.
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Santos-Smith said she and Bancroft entered the building through a broken window after an entrance door was full, according to the statement. As soon as she entered the Capitol, she told investigators that she knew she shouldn’t be.
A CCTV screen shot showed one of the women entering the broken window.
After approximately 30 seconds to a minute inside, Santos-Smith stated that she and Bancroft left the building through the same window through which they entered. Bancroft reported a similar story to investigators, according to the criminal complaint.
Bancroft and Santos-Smith were accused of entering and staying in a restricted building, interrupting government business and disorderly conduct.