WASHINGTON — A Pennsylvania woman who led a group of rioters into the office of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi on Jan. 6, 2021, and ordered others inside the Capitol to steal a laptop, has been sentenced. Thursday in Federal District Court in Washington to three years in prison.
The woman, riley june williams, 24, was convicted in November on various charges, including felony civil disorder and hindering officers trying to defend the Capitol Rotunda. The jury deadlocked on whether she had played a role in the theft of the computer, which Pelosi used for Zoom calls during the coronavirus pandemic, and whether her actions amounted to obstruction of congressional certification of the 2020 election ballot.
Prosecutors reiterated their view Thursday that Ms. Williams had acted as an “accelerator” in the Capitol attack by rallying those around her to form a “human battering ram,” pushing through police lines and ultimately forcing his way to the office of the Speaker of the House.
They said Ms Williams, who was 22 at the time, had become “obsessed” with the far-right activist Nick Fuentes and the Groyper Army, a white nationalist organization that openly defended the false claim that Donald J. Trump won the 2020 election. Ms. Williams bragged about stealing items from the speaker’s office while trying very hard to cover her tracks. in the weeks after the riot, prosecutors said.
Ms. Williams’ lawyer, Lori J. Ulrich, told Judge Amy Berman Jackson that Ms. Williams had been “played and manipulated” at an impressionable age and led to believe false claims about the election that they were perpetuated by a series of “older adults”. men” like Mr. Fuentes, her father and Mr. Trump.
Understanding the events of January 6
Ms. Williams said in brief remarks Thursday that she had become “addicted to the internet” at the time and was seeking acceptance and validation from family and peers when she joined the mob on Capitol Hill.
“I hardly recognize the stupid girl who was yelling at the police,” she said.
Judge Jackson delivered a scathing rebuke, dismissing claims that Ms Williams was too young to be held accountable or too weak to have played a dangerous role in clashes with police.
The judge described Ms. Williams acting “like a coxswain in a crew team” during her 90 minutes on Capitol Hill, citing videos showing her “handpicking” of larger, better-equipped protesters wearing protective gear. , to whom “he gave instructions on where to go and how to behave from the moment he entered.”
“She wasn’t just a little waif blowing in the wind,” Judge Jackson said.
Before the hearing, federal prosecutors sought a sentence of more than seven years, arguing that Ms. Williams had bragged online about her “good tactics” to maneuver others around the Capitol. At one point, she told her father that they had to return to Washington on January 20 to “finish the job,” prosecutors said.
Prosecutors also reviewed evidence shown at trial that Ms Williams had successfully blocked investigators from accessing a large number of her text messages and social media posts after the riot, using grade software. commercial to wipe his laptop in what they called an “extensive, calculated.” and the effort of technology experts.
They urged the judge on Thursday to impose a sentence of at least five years. Ms. Ulrich proposed a sentence of one year and one day.
Before reading the sentence, Judge Jackson listed more than a dozen figures she said made positive contributions at a young age, including Kobe Bryant and Representative Maxwell Alejandro Frost Florida The judge repeated Ms. Williams’ words that there was “no justification or excuse” for her conduct.
In addition to Ms. Williams’ three-year sentence, Judge Jackson ordered her to serve another 36 months on supervised release. Any engagement with Mr. Fuentes or other political figures that went beyond protected speech during that period would be considered a violation of the terms of her release, the judge said.
