Later, Gordon said, Williams clashed straight with police, utilizing larger men successful assemblage armor arsenic a buffer to propulsion against constabulary lines and bragging to friends astir the tactics she utilized to frustrate police’s efforts to wide the building. Despite repeatedly posting connected societal media astir the events of the day, she aboriginal deleted her societal media accounts and messages and considered fleeing earlier turning herself successful to police. She utilized industrial-grade bundle to hitch her machine arsenic well.
Williams’ determination to participate the Capitol followed weeks of obsession implicit the predetermination results, prosecutors said, fueled by her depletion of podcasts that fueled mendacious claims that the predetermination had been stolen from then-President Donald Trump.
“She hated erstwhile Vice President Mike Pence,” Gordon said. “She hated Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi adjacent more.”
The lawsuit is 1 of the astir antithetic to look among the 900 radical being prosecuted truthful acold for their relation successful the mob onslaught connected the Capitol. Williams was charged rapidly aft Jan. 6, and video emerged showing her connected Capitol grounds carrying a distinctive zebra-print container that helped instrumentality enforcement way her movements successful the voluminous video taken of the riot.
Prosecutors person charged Williams with 8 counts, including participating successful a “civil disorder” and obstruction of Congress’ Jan. 6 proceeding — a felony complaint that carries a 20-year maximum condemnation — and aiding and abetting the theft of Pelosi’s laptop.
Her proceedings began connected the day of the archetypal nationalist predetermination since the 1 prosecutors accidental she attempted to prevent, and it came amid a furor implicit the mounting threats against members of Congress — and Pelosi herself. A apical adjutant to Pelosi, Jamie Fleet, is expected to testify astir the events of the time and the effect of the riot connected legislature operations.
Williams’ lawyer Lori Ulrich said there’s small uncertainty that Williams acted improperly and that the video the authorities has of her actions includes disturbing elements of the riot. But she encouraged jurors to instrumentality a antithetic presumption of her client: “A miss wanting to beryllium a somebody.”
Williams, she said, was small much than “a girl” successful “fuzzy boots and a greenish T-shirt” who overstated her actions successful societal media boasts. Williams had traveled to Washington with her begetter and 2 different radical to be Trump’s Jan. 6 rally and got separated from them earlier joining the march to the Capitol, her lawyer said.
“She wasn’t retired to wounded Nancy Pelosi,” Ulrich said. “She wasn’t retired to wounded anybody.”
Ulrich emphasized that prosecutors person not charged Williams with taking Pelosi’s laptop — lone with “aiding and abetting” others, a complaint she said exaggerated what Williams really did wrong Pelosi’s office. She ne'er went into the House oregon Senate chambers, and erstwhile she entered the gathering itself, she posted connected societal media that she had stormed the “White House.”
The lawsuit against Williams, Ulrich said, amounted to “Let’s propulsion everything astatine the partition and spot what sticks.”
Among the issues that volition travel up successful proceedings is Williams’ aggravated involvement successful the Groypers, the sanction fixed to followers of achromatic nationalist podcaster Nick Fuentes, a salient purveyor of claims that the 2020 predetermination had been stolen. Williams shared memes astir her actions connected Jan. 6 that indicated she was motivated by those messages, and her greenish T-shirt that she wore during the riot work “I’m with Groyper.”
English (US)