A Capitol rioter in her young 20s from Pennsylvania named Riley Williams, who has been identified as a follower of far-right extremist Nick Fuentes, should receive over seven years in prison, prosecutors said. The exact recommendation, which doesn’t bind the judge handling Williams’s sentencing, was 87 months.
Williams is already in custody after she was found guilty by a jury late last year (in November) of a series of criminal charges stemming from her participation in the riot, where she took a very active role, encouraging other participants. Although the jury didn’t find her guilty of a charge of aiding and abetting the theft of a laptop from a Capitol Hill office for Nancy Pelosi, jurors did conclude Williams was guilty of a series of some of the other serious charges that have been imposed on riot participants, including civil disorder and assaulting, resisting, or impeding police. (She personally confronted officers.) Williams has also been identified as herself harboring white supremacist beliefs, in line with those propagated by Fuentes and his associates. Reps. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) and Paul Gosar (R-Ariz.) have been involved in a conference put on by Fuentes, although Greene much later offered criticism for him.
Fuentes also infamously dined with Donald Trump himself at the ex-president’s southern Florida resort Mar-a-Lago, although Trump also tried to distance himself in subsequent public comments. Ye, the hip-hop artist better known by his former name Kanye West, was also present — and has also come under scrutiny for anti-Semitism. Besides Fuentes, West was also palling around with folks like far-right agitator Alex Jones, just to put things in perspective.
At the Capitol, Williams — who isn’t alone among followers of Fuentes to be charged for joining the mob — also physically pushed other riot participants further into the melee. Reports seemingly indicated that federal Judge Amy Berman Jackson agreeing with the government request for Williams to be put in custody ahead of sentencing came as quite a surprise to the defendant, although that could be expected. Her defense seemingly tried to play up her age and physically diminutive appearance, referring to her carrying her “fuzzy zebra bag” with her and saying she bragged about what she did at the Capitol because she wanted to essentially make a name for herself, as the saying goes. Reporter Ryan Reilly noted Williams mistook the Capitol for the White House as she was participating in the breach of the building, saying in a text she was storming the presidential residence. That too isn’t unique among Capitol rioters. Doug Jensen, who infamously chased officer Eugene Goodman during the assault, said on camera he was touching the White House. He wasn’t. It was the Capitol.
“led an army up the stairs.”
Feds want neo-nazi Jan. 6 defendant Riley June Williams, who became "obsessed" with Nick Fuentes, to serve 7+ years in prison.https://t.co/cfnhyYBNg6 pic.twitter.com/bs28OVabCd
— Ryan J. Reilly (@ryanjreilly) February 14, 2023
