Riley Williams, the woman accused by a former romantic partner stealing a computer from Nancy Pelosi’s office during the Capitol riot, is facing new charges, according to court documents released Tuesday. The amended criminal complaint cites a video from that day in which Williams allegedly instructs a man to put on gloves before touching Pelosi’s laptop, and claims that she enters and leaves Pelosi’s office.
Williams has now been charged with “Helping others to embezzlement, stealing, purloin” and “Obstructing, influencing or interfering with official proceedings.” She continues to face her first allegations of “knowingly entering or staying in a restricted building or property without legal authority” and “violent entry and disorderly conduct on the Capitol property.”
Williams surrendered to Pennsylvania authorities on Monday after a person who identified herself as her former romantic partner called the FBI multiple times in the days following the riot to report seeing her in videos in the Capitol, according to court documents.
In the amended complaint, an FBI agent said that Williams’s former partner shared video clips with investigators they believed were recorded or live-streamed by Williams during the riot. In a 4-second video, the person holding the camera – who the cop said was Williams – tilted it down to reveal an HP laptop sitting on a wooden desk.
The Ministry of Justice
A female voice, presumably Williams, then said, “Dude, put on gloves,” the complaint said. The video then appears to show a man’s arm touching a laptop, the complaint said, while the text about the video is added as ‘they have the laptop’.
According to the complaint, Capitol Police confirmed that an HP laptop was stolen from Pelosi’s office on the day of the riot. Capitol police also confirmed that the images shown in the video were taken in Pelosi’s office.
The complaint also cited posts on the social media app Discord in which a user named Riley wrote “I STOLE S *** FROM NANCY POLESI (sic)” and “I HAVE NANCY POLESIS TAKING HARD DRIVES I DONT CARE.” The complaint does not provide concrete evidence that Williams is associated with the social media posts, but it is noted that her former partner said she used the platform frequently.
Williams’ former partner also told authorities she “planned to send the computing device to a friend in Russia, who then planned to sell the device to SVR, Russia’s foreign intelligence agency,” the complaint said. But that plan “fell through for unknown reasons,” the partner said, claiming that Williams still had the device or had destroyed it. That claim “remains under investigation,” the complaint said.
Clare Hymes has reported.