Williams bragged about her crime on a Discord server and discussed her plan of selling the laptop to Russian foreign intelligence services with her boyfriend.[7] The server was reportedly affiliated with CVLT, a child exploitation organization.[8] She was arrested by federal authorities on January 18, 2021 in Pennsylvania,[9] being charged with disorderly conduct and violent entry. Her boyfriend was also investigated by the FBI about the laptop.[10] She was found guilty and sentenced by judge Amy Jackson on March 21, 2023 to 36 months in prison.[11]
Williams is one of ninety-six Pennsylvania residents arrested in connection with the January 6th attack. Her release was scheduled for March 14, 2025[12] but she was released on January 20, 2025 after being pardoned by Donald Trump.[2] The stolen laptop was never found by law enforcement, her lawyer continued to defend her and said she had not stolen anything.[13]
Personal life
Birth and family
Judge Amy Jackson said that Riley Williams was born the same year as Nick Fuentes (August 18, 1998).[14] She lived in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania,[15] reportedly, in an apartment she shared with her mother.[16] In 2017, Williams graduated from Mechanicsburg Area Senior High. Throughout 2017 to 2019, she commited 6 traffic violations in Cumberland and Dauphin.[17] Her mother described Williams as an “empathetic and loving person” who worked for Keystone Human Services, health care agency.[16] Williams had a relationship with a man living in New Jersey, Michael Prodanov of Bulgarian descent. Reportedly, their relationship was brief and non-abusive.[18] Court records showed that her father lives in Camp Hill,[19] he worked as a security guard and was charged with possession of child porn in 2024, he is currently free on $25,000 bail.[20]
Political views
Nine weeks before her participation in January 6 Capitol attack, Riley Williams posted videos of herself on social media doing nazi salutes. One video, showed her saying she wants to "kill all black people in America" while wearing a face mask with extremist emblems. Her friend told the press that she was "obsessed" with Nick Fuentes, far-right political pundit in US, and viewed him as "god". Williams' mother, Wendy, said that Williams started being intrested in America First movement in 2020 and was known to associate herself with far-right figures. It reportedly led to Wendy avoiding political discussions with her.[21] Wendy also said that Williams was “addicted to the internet” and was a fan of Groyper Army, internet troll group.[22] She was a known member of "The Camps", a neo-Nazi chat room created by former marine Christopher Pohlhaus who is a founder of Blood Tribe, neo-Nazi group. That information became known after an anonymous tipster shared pictures of Williams talking in the charoom under a known username to Vice Magazine, who confirmed that they were "uthentic and undoctored". Pohlhaus said that he didnt remember seeing Williams here and warned members of the chat room to not participate in the attack.[23][24] According to prosecutor in her trial, Williams believed Donald Trump's claims that 2020 United States presidential election was stolen and was “obsessed" with it.[25] He also said that her internet activity shows that she is a follower of accelerationism.[26]
The videos of Williams doing Nazi salutes were first found on far-right Telegram channels by an unnamed researcher studying anti-fascism in 2020. He showed them to Bellingcat, investigative journalism group, leading to it analysing her internet presence. The group said she used multiple accounts on Twitter and Parler, under the usernames "whitepillgroyper" and "whitepillgroypr", with the names being likely references to white identitarian ideology. Her Twitter account was later deleted, but researchers managed to take multiple screenshots of her comments, one showed her support for Nick Fuentes and others for president Donald Trump and Alex Jones, founder of Infowars. Her support for Nick Fuentes among other far-right figures was the strongest, one comment showed her defending Fuentes from Twitter accusations of him urinating in his pants during physical education lesson in high school and the other accusing one America First follower of "promoting race mixing". Williams attended a rally held by Nick Fuentes on December 12, 2020 where she took photos of her together with him. Williams was active on Discord under the username "Riley", the photos she sent to other users here were described as pornographic. She also reportedly posted self-harming messages to an indvidual on Discord.[6] One video of Williams doing Nazi salutes used music named "Spoiler" by DJ Hyper, leading to every copy of the video getting taken down for copyright infringement.[27]
On January 6, 2021, Riley Williams attended Stop the Steal rally in Washington DC where Donald Trump accused the governement of rigging the election. She wore a green "I'm with Groyper" T-shirt during the event and was there together with her father and friends.[28][29] After that, she began walking to the United States Capitol with thousands of other protesters.[30] Williams wore a brown jacket, black tights and carried a zebra-colored handbag. Reportedly, she intentionally looked for armored protesters, specifically large men who were equipped with tactical wests and shields so she could direct them to break police lines. The prosecutor described Williams as “among the worst of the January 6th rioters".[31] At that time, a documentary about the attack was filmed by British ITV News for YouTube, the footage showed a crowd of protestors streaming into the capitol. At 20:40 mark, Williams was seen yelling "upstairs, upstairs, upstairs" to the protesters inside the building, the documentary described her as "disciplined, focused, with a sense of urgency, directing people up a staircase".[32] Videos of the incident captured her shouting "push, push, push” at law enforcement officers who were guarding the Capitol rotunda.[30] One video showed her thowing a water bottle at an officer, calling him "traitor".[33] According to DoJ, she entered the capitol at approximately 2:15p.m. using the Senate Wing Door, she was present in the building for approximately 70 minutes. She took multiple photos and videos of her in the capitol, they were later used against her in court by prosecutors. She walked in Capitol Crypt and Capitol rondula together with other protesters before breaking into office of the Speaker of the House, who at that time was Nancy Pelosi.[33][34]
Once she and the crowd entered Pelosi's office, Williams was seen putting an unknown object (the same size as a laptop) into her zebra-colored handbag. An unidentified man wearing brown clothing standing close to her was also seen taking an HP Laptop out of the room.[7] Multiple videos of Williams in Pelosi's office were captured, one video, titled: "they got the laptop", showed a man grabbing the laptop with black cloth and another video, titled "this is her office", briefly showed Williams walking inside the office.[36] One video showed Willlams telling the person: "Dude, put on gloves" as he was taking the laptop out.[37] After the attack ended, Williams bragged about her crime on Discord server in a series of text messages,[38] the server was reportedly afiliated with child exploitation organization CVLT.[8] One message read: “I stole shit from Nancy Polesi”, another said: “I took Polesis hard drives”. Other three said: “I took Nancy Polesis hard drives. I don’t care. Kill me”, “Like theure gonna arrest me” and "They’ll never take me alive”.[39][40] She also wrote about how she managed to escape the capitol and avoided arrest, one message said: "they followed me around grabbing me while I was escaping in the crowd. I got away”.[39] When asked about Williams, her father said he drove her to Washington, DC, and that after the attack ended, he met Williams and drove her back to their home in Pennsylvania.[41]
According to FBI, a witness had seen her stealing a "laptop computer or hard drive from Speaker Pelosi’s office" with the intention to sell it to her friend in Russia, the friend was then going to hand the laptop over to Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR). The witness was later revealed to be her boyfriend.[42] He added that she was not able to sell the device for unknown reasons and that she possibly destroyed it.[43] Pelosi's spokesperson, Drew Hammill, said that the laptop was supposed to be in conference room and that it was used "only for presentations".[44][45] Williams' mother said she escaped their home a day after the attack, packing a bag and saying they would not see each other for two weeks.[46] Williams deleted all of her social media accounts on Twitter, Telegram and Parler and also changed her phone number.[47] The mother was interviewed by ITV News crew prior to Williams's arrest, talking to it throught partially opened door. She confirmed that it was her daughter who participated in the capitol attack and said that she is "very unhappy" and "sad" that video footage showed her going inside. When asked about her role in organizing the attack, she said Williams is "definitely not a leader".[48][19]
Legal issues
House arrest
On January 18, 2021, Riley Williams turned herself in to authorities. Emanuel Jackson, unaffiliated January 6 protester who allegedly hit police officers with a metal bat, also turned himself over this day.[49] She was arrested in central Pennsylvania, Williams was charged with disorderly conduct, violent entry and entering restricted building or grounds. Her court hearing was scheduled for January 19.[50] FBI said that she was not immediately charged with theft of the laptop because this charge still remained under investigation.[51] On January 21, Williams was released from jail after a federal judge Martin Carlson allowed her to be placed on house arrest in her mother's apartment. He ordered her to wear ancle bracelet and not go to Washingon DC. He said he released her because she had no past criminal record and finished the hearing by saying: “Your freedom, conditioned as it is by the orders that I have entered, is the result of the prevailing of the Constitution”.[52][53] The judge also banned her from using the internet and recommended her to find a job that does not need it. He banned her from using smartphones, ordering Williams to buy a flip phone and submit to drug testing. He warned her that if she violated his demands, she would face new charges.[54]
On that day, prosecutors charged Williams with two new felonies; aiding the theft of government property and influencing or impeding an official proceeding. Lawyer of Williams, But Ulrich, defended her by saying that she changed her phone number because her boyfriend was abusing her and that the charges against here were "overstated".[53] On January 27, 2021, her secondary lawyer, AJ Cramer, said that her boyfriend who reported Williams to FBI made the whole accusation about stolen laptop up. He said that he lied because he was angry at Williams for "various things" and wanted revenge.[55] In a statement to BuzzFeed News, he said Williams denies all charges against her and that police were unable to find the laptop in her apartment or car, supporting his claim.[56] On October 7, 2021, Williams was officially charged with theft of the laptop, she was also charged with resisting police.[57] On August 18, 2022, Williams asked the court for her house arrest to be temporarily lifted so she could attend Renaissance Faire.[58] The judge agreed on the same day, allowing her to attend the festival. She also previously requested her court place to be changed but was denied on June 2021.[59]
Incarceration
On November 21, 2022, the court found Williams guilty on six charges, two felonies and four misdemeanors.[34] It was not able to convict her on two other charges (obstruction of an official proceeding and abetting the theft of the laptop) due to a hung jury. Judge Amy Jackson, who was presiding over the case, said that Williams does not respect the law and ordered her to be arrested and put in jail to await sentencing. Williams was upset about the judge's decision and said the word "Fuck".[60] The duration of her house arrest was 4 months.[61] On June 2022, prosecutors alleged that Williams' boyfriend was previously arrested and jailed for 19 months after stealing his roommate's car and attempting to buy a gun with the intention to commit a mass shooting in synagogue. They also said that she failed to report all of her meetings on August 2021 to her probation officer, violating her conditions. Lawyers of Williams acnowleged it and said that her actions were “regrettable”. They denied the accusation that her boyfriend attempted to commit a mass shooting in a synagogue, calling it an "inflammatory and unsupported allegation", they said that there is no evidence that his intent in trying to buy a gun was to commit a mass shooting.[62][63]
On March 23, 2023, Williams' trial began. The prosecutors requested her to be given 7 years in prison, accusing her of organizing a "human battering ram" against the capitol police. Williams gave an apology to judge Amy Jacson, describing herself as a "stupid girl who was yelling at police", the judge said that she acted like "like a coxswain on a crew team" and that she was not "just a little waif blowing in the wind".[4] The prosecutors said that she used her knowledge in software to delete the contents of her computer 6 times to hide the evidence and that she had no remorse for her actions.[64] Williams' lawyers said that she should be given more lenient sentence due to her young age and gender, recommending a time of one year and one day in prison.[65] Jacson said that she was "unconvinced" by her lawyer's arguments,[66] describing her crimes as "utterly reprehensible". She sentenced Williams to 36-months in prison.[64] She also sentenced her to 36 months of probation, saying that if Williams showed support for Nick Fuentes again, it would be a violation of her release conditions and she would be arrested. She will also pay a restitution fee of $2,000.[22][67] Williams served her sentence in federal prison in Hazelton, West Virginia.[68] The whereabouts of the stolen laptop and gavel are unknown to this day.[4]
On March 2024, lawyers of Williams asked the court to shorten her sentence due to her alleged good behaviour in prison.[69] The Judge denied the request, saying that she was violent during the capitol attack and because of that, she does not meet the requirements for sentence reduction.[12] Lawyer But Ulrich was dissapointed with the decision and said that he is going to appeal it. He added that because Williams was never charged with violent crimes she is being held "accountable for things the Government did not prove".[70] On January 20, 2025, President Donald Trump announced a blanket pardon for all those involved in the January 6 attack. The order pardoned 1,500 defendants and reduced the sentences of 14 others. Among those pardoned was Riley Williams, she was released from prison.[71][72]Christopher Pohlhaus celebrated her pardon on social media, he posted a photo of her wearing a mask and said: “Saint Riley… Congrats on your freedom. Hail victory”.[73] But Ulrich said she was happy that Williams and her other unaffiliated client were pardoned.[74] She said that Williams did not steal the laptop and that the trial made Williams become notable as anyone can find who she is by searching her name on Google.[75]
Defamation lawsuit
Boyfriend of Williams, Michael Prodanov, sued her for defamation in 2023 for her and her lawyer's comments accusing him of abuse. The lawsuit said that their relationship had a significant amount of conflicts but it was never abusive. Prodanov also sued her friend, a man by the name of Cyrus "Cy" Sanders, who wrote a comment on Facebook under a local news story accusing him of abusing Williams, the comment read: "This is Mike the estranged stalker Russian boyfriend with a PFA against him who created this fake story against the young lady he physically and mentally abused". The lawsuit also said she filed a "spurious" restraining order against him and told police when arrested the reason she disappeared from her home was because she felt "stalked and harassed" by Prodanov. Judge Douglas Hurd, who was presiding over the lawsuit, agreed with it on October 16, 2023, and ordered Williams, Williams' father and Cyrus "Cy" Sanders to pay Prodanov $50,000 in compensation. He also put a restraining order on her that banned her from "publishing per se defamatory and defamatory statements" about Prodanov.[18][76]
Lori Ulrich, lawyer of Williams, said that she had no lawyer to represent her from the defamation case and descibed the judge's decision as “very troubling”. Reportedly, the post by Sanders led to Daily Mail and The Epoch Times repeating his claims, the lawyer for Prodanov, Christopher D’Alessandro, said that Prodanov now has the "burden of having these comments out there for the rest of his life". He also said that Prodanov felt "vindicated" that the judge agreed with him, but he doesn't like that Sanders' comments can still be seen online.[77] Williams sent a written letter to Judge Hurd from prison addressing the lawsuit, she said she was "confused" by it because she had not used the internet since 2021 and called the lawsuit a part of harassment campaign by Prodanov, calling him a "criminal stalker".[18]
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