- Dawn Bancroft and Diana Santos-Smith were arrested and charged in connection with the riot in Capitol.
- According to an affidavit, the FBI received a fee for a “selfie” video taken during the siege.
- Costs include access to a restricted building, disruption of government affairs and disorderly conduct.
- Visit Business Insider’s homepage for more stories.
Two women charged in connection with the siege of the Capitol said they were “searching” in the building for House Speaker Nancy Pelosi to shoot her in the brain, according to a statement.
Dawn Bancroft and Diana Santos-Smith were arrested in Pennsylvania earlier this week in connection with the deadly January 6 uprising, according to a criminal charge.
Rioters stormed the Capitol building earlier this month as Congress convened to ratify the victory of then-elected President Joe Biden. The breach of the building resulted in legislators and Vice President Mike Pence having to take refuge.
Five people died in the uprising.
On January 12, the Federal Bureau of Investigation received a tip from a “selfie” video allegedly taken by Bancroft during the riot at the U.S. Capitol building. In the video, Bancroft and another woman who the FBI later identified as Santos-Smith were shown, according to the affidavit, “in the process of leaving the U.S. Capitol building in Washington, DC.”
Read more: Marjorie Taylor Greene warned before the election that Americans would have to shed blood to “get your freedoms back” if Trump lost
“We broke into the Capitol … we came in, we did our part,” Bancroft said in the video, according to the criminal charge. “We were looking for Nancy to shoot her in the brain, but we did not find her.”
About a week after the FBI received the fee, for which they did not identify a source, investigators questioned Santos-Smith and Bancroft. Santos-Smith initially told investigators that she did not enter the Capitol building, but admitted that she lied after agents submitted the above video to her. Bancroft said she did enter the building.
Santos-Smith said she and Bancroft attended the protest outside the Capitol without entering the building before hearing people shout ‘they let us in’, and told investigators they think protesters may enter the Capitol. enter.
Read more: Law enforcement officials say the Capitol siege was just the tip of the iceberg of the ‘cult-like’ threat posed by right-wing extremists to the US.
Santos-Smith said she and Bancroft entered the building through a broken window after pushing an entrance door, according to the affidavit. When she entered the Capitol, she told investigators she knew she was not entering.
On a screenshot of CCTV recordings, one of the women climbed in through the broken window.
After about 30 seconds to one minute inside, Santos-Smith claims she and Bancroft left the building from the same window through which they entered. Bancroft conveyed a similar story to investigators, according to the criminal charge.
Bancroft and Santos-Smith are charged with entering a restricted building and staying there, disrupting government affairs and misconduct.