Prosecutors will not seek additional charges for a Pennsylvania woman accused of stealing House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s laptop during the Jan. 6 riot at the Capitol after a jury deadlocked on charging her on two different counts.
Riley Williams was found guilty on six charges related to her actions during the Capitol riot in November, including one count of impeding police officers and participating in a civil disorder. However, the jury was deadlocked on two other charges related to aiding and abetting the theft of Pelosi’s laptop as well as an obstruction charge, failing to come to a verdict.
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JUST IN: Prosecutors have opted not to retry Riley WILLIAMS on the two counts the jury has deadlocked on: Obstruction of an official proceeding, and aiding/abetting the theft of Pelosi’s laptop. pic.twitter.com/5ISD9xVa80
— Kyle Cheney (@kyledcheney) December 5, 2022
As a result, prosecutors announced Monday they would not call for a retrial on those final two charges, allowing the court to move forward with sentencing Williams in February.
“The government requests leave to dismiss counts 2 and 4 of the Indictment without prejudice, pursuant to Federal Rule of Criminal Procedure 48,” prosecutors wrote in a court filing on Monday. “This decision should allow the parties and court to move forward with defendant’s sentencing as scheduled on February 22, 2023, and to achieve justice for the defendant’s conduct without delay.”
Williams was found guilty on six counts after she was captured on video instructing another rioter to steal Pelosi’s laptop from the speaker’s conference room during the Jan. 6 riot.
“Dude, take the f***ing laptop,” Williams was heard shouting at a man in a conference room in the Pelosi suite, per the Washington Post. “Dude, put on gloves.”
While Williams was found guilty on six of her initial charges, Judge Amy Berman Jackson said she would declare a mistrial for the final two counts on which the jury couldn’t come to a decision.
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Lawyers for the Pennsylvania woman argued she should not be held liable for the theft because the “laptop was gone either way,” according to Lori Ulrich.
Jurors began deliberating on the case in mid-November, releasing their decision on Nov. 21.
