After a lengthy trial Tuesday in federal court in Washington, DC, the case of Riley June Williams – a 22-year-old Pennsylvania woman accused of stealing a laptop from the home office, Speaker Nancy Pelosi , stole or stole and sold it. to Russia’s foreign intelligence service – is more confusing than ever before.
According to a statement of facts compiled by the FBI, a “former romantic partner” of Williams called the agency, claiming that Williams took the laptop during the storms of the American Capitol and “intended to take the computer device to sending a friend to Russia, who was then planning to sell the device to SVR, the Russian foreign intelligence service. The FBI added that the tipster said the sale went through for “unknown reasons” and that Williams still owned or destroyed the device. (Pelosi’s office confirmed that the laptop was missing, although one of her staff tweeted two days after the uprising that it was ‘used for presentations only’.)
But during the trial Tuesday, in order to determine the terms of her house arrest, her defense attorney, Federal Public Defender AJ Kramer, argued that Williams’ home and her car were searched, and that she did not have the laptop. not.
“In the allegation of the theft of the computer, she is charged with aiding and abetting, not the theft itself,” Kramer said during the trial. “In reality, [law enforcement] searched everywhere, and she did not have the computer. They searched the car and the house. ”
After the trial, Kramer told BuzzFeed News by telephone that Williams denied all the allegations against her – from the theft itself, including the theft, or the encouragement of the theft, to allegations that they wanted to sell it to Russia – and claimed that they all imposed by an ex who, as he said at the trial, “took revenge on Williams for various things.” Williams has filed a restraining order against the ex, Kramer added.
Kramer added that he ‘thinks’ that Williams never had the laptop. The Department of Justice declined to comment on this proposal.
However, the FBI affidavit contains snapshots of what Williams appears to be on the social media platform Discord (which was one of the services used to organize the January 6 protests and uprising): ‘I STOLE SHIT FROM NANCY POLESI [sic]”A“ I DOMT CARE I TOOK NANCY POLESIS HARD DRIVES I DOWN CARE MILL MY. The document also contains several screenshots and descriptions of videos taken during the uprising, in which Williams was apparently shown in the Capitol, stunned other rioters and the crowd apparently turned up the stairs in the direction of Pelosi’s office.
Screenshots of a video that tipsters told the FBI Williams on her own social media account show how people were taking a laptop off a convention bench. The FBI agent who wrote the affidavit says that the video appears to be Williams telling a man who grabbed the computer to ‘put on gloves’ and that the writing on the video says’ they got the laptop ‘.
The lawsuit against Williams in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia accuses Williams of four charges, including aiding and abetting ‘others’ to embezzle, steal, steal and unite more than $ 6,000 of government property, along with the illegal indictment and unlawful conduct Attorney of the Department of Justice Kelly Smith has made it clear that the government is still investigating Williams and that it is possible that she may face other charges in the future.
A Justice Department spokesman declined to comment on whether anyone else was charged with stealing Pelosi’s laptop and whether they had recovered it.
The FBI’s statement of facts accuses Williams of trying to flee before her arrest, clearing her social media accounts and changing her phone number. Williams urged others to also remove messages related to the uprising, the Justice Department said. However, a day after her arrest warrant was officially issued, Williams surrendered.
Judge Zia Faruqui expressed surprise that the government did not plead for Williams ‘detention, as the allegations in the charge against her were’ quite shocking ‘and’ read like something out of The Americans, ”Refers to the TV show about Russian spies in the USA during the Cold War.
Instead of asking that she be detained, the Department of Justice requested that Williams be kept under house arrest under a single monitor under the supervision of her mother, and that she not be allowed to use any devices with Internet access.
Kelly Smith, the lawyer representing the Justice Department in the case, declined to elaborate further on why they did not ask Williams to be detained, saying that providing more details about the case the government’s investigation into Williams and the events of the January 6 uprising.
Smith on Tuesday demanded a complete ban on the Internet, including smartphones and televisions, and asked Williams to get a flip phone to talk to her lawyer and receive mental health treatment.
“We are concerned that the accused will acquire new devices in the future … which are easy to hide, and that the damage that can be done can be done immediately in the cyber world,” Smith said during the trial. ‘Yes, it’s true that we do not have evidence of things she did after her arrest, but she was aware of public media scrutiny over her involvement during the time she removed her accounts and instructed other people to do her thing. to remove. ‘
Kramer pushed back, saying Williams deleted her accounts before Jan. 6 because her ex, the same one who, according to Williams’ lawyers, killed the FBI, reported to her accounts and sent people there.
“I do not agree with the defense’s characterization of when and why she removed the bills,” Smith said. The government recently received evidence that Williams ordered on January 10 that “one of her Discord associates had to delete messages, and those messages are related to the rioting event in the Capitol,” Smith said.
This evidence shows that Williams ‘is a person who is motivated and knows how to tell people to destroy records’, she added.
After Kramer told him about Williams ‘allegations against her ex, Faruqui said that without further information from the government’s investigation, he should’ strongly discount ‘the allegations by Williams’ ex, and dismiss them as someone possible with an ax. to grind. ”
“I will pass … what you say and I believe these things,” the judge told Smith, “but I also believe Mr. Kramer. So I can consider whether she is being shown a megaphone that leads her to do bad things on the internet, or one that she also has. ‘
Finally, after two days, about four hours back and forth, and nearly 30 minutes of off-the-record meetings about whether Williams should be allowed to watch TV when connected to the Internet, Faruqui decided: Williams will be among the stay home Arrested with a single monitor and supervised by her mother, will undergo a mental health assessment and will not be allowed to use the internet unless it is a video call with her lawyer or a mental health worker. She may use a mobile phone and watch TV, as long as she does not use the TV to communicate with anyone.
Her next trial is on March 25.