The FBI is investigating a tip it received that a Pennsylvania woman who participated in the siege on the U.S. Capitol may have stolen a laptop from House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's office and made plans to sell it to the Russians, according to a court affidavit made public Sunday night. (PDF document: Entire affidavit at the bottom of the story)
Riley June Williams -- whose whereabouts are unknown -- was charged Sunday after her mother told police in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, that she had packed a bag, left her home and fled without saying where she was headed, FBI Special Agent John Lund said in the affidavit.
According to the affidavit, the FBI was alerted to Williams by a former "romantic partner" who spotted their ex in a video and called the FBI tip line.
"The caller stated that he/she was the former romantic partner of RILEY JUNE WILLIAMS (“WILLIAMS”), that he/she saw WILLIAMS depicted in video footage taken on January 6, 2021, from inside the U.S. Capitol Building," the affidavit reads. "W1 stated that WILLIAMS can be seen directing crowds inside the U.S. Capitol Building up a staircase. The caller specified the uniform resource locator (“url”) for a YouTube video that he/she was describing as url: https://youtube.com/watch?v=jJiSmVktty4&feature=youtu.be."
The affidavit then addresses the plans to sell the laptop to the Russians.
"W1 also claimed to have spoken to friends of WILLIAMS, who showed W1 a video of WILLIAMS taking a laptop computer or hard drive from Speaker Pelosi’s office," the affidavit reads. "W1 stated that WILLIAMS intended to send the computer device to a friend in Russia, who then planned to sell the device to SVR, Russia’s foreign intelligence service."
But the Russians never got their hands on it. "According to W1, the transfer of the computer device to Russia fell through for unknown reasons and WILLIAMS still has the computer device or destroyed it." according to the affidavit. "This matter remains under investigation."
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