A laptop stolen from the offices of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi during the U.S. Capitol attack has not been recovered from the home or car of a Pennsylvania woman accused of helping steal it, the woman’s lawyer said Tuesday.
Public defender A.J. Kramer told a federal judge that investigators searched the car and Harrisburg residence 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’m very uncomfortable discussing the facts of the case at this stage,” Sedky said. “I’m concerned that talking about what we do and don’t know and what we’re running down could jeopardize the investigation.”
Williams, 22, is accused of helping steal the laptop, which a Pelosi aide has said was only used for presentations. She is on electronic monitoring and largely confined to her home to await trial on that charge, along with obstruction, trespassing and violent entry and disorderly conduct on Capitol grounds.
Sedky told the judge there is evidence Williams has directed others to delete data after the attack, the paper said. U.S. Magistrate Judge Zia M. Faruqui restricted Williams’ internet access while she awaits trial.
The FBI has said an unidentified former romantic partner of Williams tipped them off that she appeared in video from the Jan. 6 rioting and the tipster claimed she had hoped to sell the computer to Russian intelligence.
Her lawyers have said the tipster’s accusations are overstated.
Video from the riot shows a woman matching Williams’ description exhorting invaders to go “upstairs, upstairs, upstairs” during the attack. The FBI has said Williams was recorded on closed-circuit cameras in the Capitol going into and coming out of Pelosi’s office.
An FBI affidavit said a cellphone video likely shot by Williams showed a man’s gloved hand lifting an HP laptop from a table, and the caption read, “they got the laptop.”
