An elementary teacher at a Christian school in Missouri has now become one of the latest Trump supporters to be criminally charged by federal authorities for their participation in the Capitol riot. That teacher, 29-year-old Kelsey Leigh Ann Wilson, has been charged “with knowingly entering or remaining in a restricted building or grounds without lawful authority; disorderly and disruptive conduct in a restricted building or grounds; disorderly conduct on Capitol grounds; and parading, demonstrating or picketing in a Capitol building,” The Kansas City Star explains. Wilson’s husband, Zachary Wilson, has already been criminally charged by federal authorities for also participating in the riot.
Apparently, an anonymous tipster alerted the FBI in January that Zachary Wilson had posted on Facebook about going inside the Capitol building and entering the office of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) during the riot. That post revealed that Kelsey was with Zachary at the time that he went into the Capitol building. During a January 18 interview with the Wilsons conducted by FBI agents at their home in Missouri, both Zachary and Kelsey denied entering the Capitol building during the riot. On January 20, an FBI agent spoke with Zachary Wilson again, and at that point, he admitted to going inside the Capitol building but claimed that his wife had not done the same. As it turns out, he was lying.
Eventually, back in January — after that second interview — the FBI obtained surveillance footage showing the Wilsons in the Capitol in the vicinity of Pelosi’s office, and the agency obtained more footage showing the Wilsons at the Capitol the following month. It is not immediately clear why authorities waited all this time to file charges against Kelsey, but she is now among the nearly 600 Trump supporters who have been charged for participating in some form in the riot. Some defendants have agreed to plea deals, but most cases remain ongoing at this time.
Troublingly, the threat of political violence has continued in the time since the riot. Recently, an apparent Trump supporter pulled onto a sidewalk in D.C. and claimed to have a bomb, leading to hours of issues before the wannabe terrorist eventually surrendered to local authorities. After the incident, although he also identified the assailant as a “terrorist,” Rep. Mo Brooks (R-Ala.), who’s one of the most prominent Congressional proponents of election integrity lies, said that he “understand[s]” people’s frustration with “Socialism” — and a message that even appears to be sympathizing with the attacker is not what an elected official should be promoting in the aftermath of an attempted terrorist attack!
