A federal judge ordered a woman accused of stealing House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s laptop to stay off the internet after Justice Department officials claimed she was attempting to and encouraging others to destroy evidence.
Judge Zia Faruqui, after a Tuesday, hearing said that the case is “shocking” and “like nothing else” that he’s ever seen and told the 22-year-old Pennsylvania woman, Riley Williams, that she may not use the internet except in certain supervised situations. Williams was arrested shortly after allegedly participating in a Jan. 6 riot at the Capitol, where according to the FBI, she stole a laptop that she planned to sell to Russian authorities.
The restrictions came after Justice Department officials on Monday said that Williams has been deleting social media references to the theft. After the theft, Williams posted about the laptop on several social media sites.
Since her arrest and subsequent release into her mother’s custody, Williams changed her phone number and deleted her Facebook, as well as her accounts on Instagram, Twitter, Reddit, and Telegram. She has reportedly encouraged others to do the same.
“It’s very troubling conduct in the criminal complaint, frankly something like nothing else in the cases that we’ve seen so far,” Faruqui said. “I think we have to have limitations on internet access.”
Attorneys for Williams argued that she wiped her internet presence without “any intent of obstructing” justice. Williams has no previous criminal record.
Williams earlier this month fled federal investigators after a woman matching her description was identified in multiple videos of the Capitol Hill incident. In one video, she encouraged pro-Trump protesters to charge the building, shouting, “Upstairs, upstairs, upstairs.” Williams’s mother confirmed in an interview with the British TV station ITV News that the woman is her daughter, but she downplayed any suggestion of wrongdoing.
Williams after her arrest claimed that she had evaded authorities in an attempt to escape her abusive ex-boyfriend, who had originally tipped off the FBI. The ex, Michael Prodanov, told the New York Post that he has evidence that will “disprove” Williams’s claims.
Prodanov told the FBI that Williams said she planned to hand the laptop over to the SVR, a Russian intelligence agency, but the deal fell through.
Pelosi’s deputy chief of staff Drew Hammill tweeted shortly after the laptop’s theft was reported that it “was only used for presentations.” Oregon Sen. Jeff Merkley and South Carolina Rep. James Clyburn also reported devices stolen from their offices.
The location of Pelosi’s laptop remains unknown.
