A lawyer says a laptop that was stolen from the offices of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi during the US Capitol attack has not been recovered by investigators
HARRISBURG, Pa. A laptop stolen during the US Capitol attack in the office of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has not been recovered from the home or car of a Pennsylvania woman accused of stealing it no, the woman’s attorney said Tuesday.
Public Defender AJ Kramer told a federal judge that investigators searched the car and Harrisburg home of Riley June Williams but did not locate the computer.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Mona Sedky said during a hearing in Washington that she was reluctant to say more about what she described as an ongoing and fluid investigation, The Philadelphia Inquirer reported.
“I feel very uncomfortable discussing the facts of the case at this stage,” Sedky said. “I’m worried that the investigation could be jeopardized if we talk about what we do and what we do not know and what harms us.
Williams, 22, is accused of helping steal the laptop, which according to a Pelosi assistant was used only for presentations. She is engaged in electronic monitoring and is largely confined to her home to await the charge trial, along with obstruction, trespassing and violent trespassing and disorderly conduct on Capitol grounds.
Sedky told the judge there was evidence that Williams ordered others to delete data after the attack, the newspaper said. U.S. Magistrate Judge Zia M. Faruqui restricted Williams’ Internet access while awaiting trial.
The FBI said an unknown former romantic partner of Williams’s alleged that she appeared in a video on January 6, and the tipster claimed she was hoping to sell the computer to Russian intelligence.
Her lawyers said the tipster’s accusations were too high.
The riot video shows a woman matching Williams’ description encouraging intruders to go “above, above, above” during the attack. The FBI said Williams was recorded on closed-circuit cameras in the Capitol entering and exiting Pelosi’s office.
According to an FBI statement, a cellphone video that was probably shot by Williams showed a glove hand of a man lifting an HP laptop off a table, and the caption read: ‘they have the laptop . ‘