Was Riley Williams anti-Trump? Alleged Change.org post reveals past of Capitol rioter who stole Pelosi's laptop
A 22-year-old woman from Pennsylvania who was seen during the Capitol riots on January 6 has been arrested after she allegedly stole a laptop from the office of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and planned to sell it to Russian intelligence.
First identified by ITV News as Riley June Williams — a care worker from Harrisburg, Pennsylvania — she was caught on video directing others and saying, “up the stairs, up the stairs”, according to the Department of Justice. FBI agent John Lund detailed the allegations in a court affidavit, noting how a former romantic partner [Witness 1] of Williams had told the agency that she had taken either a laptop or a hard drive.
Calling her a peaceful protestor lost in the crowd, her mother, Wendy Williams told ITV, “She's definitely not a leader. I just think, I know there was another woman beside her also doing it, I think she was like ’they’re letting us up, they’re letting us up, let’s go'. She’s a 22-year-old who, like I said, is very empathetic and loving.”
As MEAWW previously reported, the said affidavit noted how Williams changed her phone number after the riots and deleted her social media accounts on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Reddit, Telegram, and Parler. Now, interestingly, a 2018 Change.org post seems to have surfaced that reveals her anti-Trump inclinations. The petition had 10,793 supporters.
Was Riley Williams anti-Trump?
The old Change.org post reveals more about her alleged past. Addressed to Donald Trump and titled ‘End Mass Shootings’, the post reads: “Currently in 2018, the United States of America is averaging one mass shooting every 60 hours. We are barely two months into 2018. This needs to change, for we are the only country on this Earth where this happens.”
She wrote, “I’m calling on our government to stop sending their thoughts and prayers and to enact policy and change. Pass laws that will help control and ultimately stop these mass shootings. Stop putting an end to bills that restrict who may buy guns.”
The post continued, “On the same day of the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School shooting, Trump took away a bill that restricted the sale of guns to people with mental illnesses. This is a step in the wrong direction. This country needs to follow the lead of Australia and the U.K. to put an end to the loss of life in these mass shootings. The students killed in mass shootings had their whole lives ahead of them, and that was all taken away in the blink of an eye thanks to the lack of gun control in this country. We need to put an end to this once and for all.”
Here's the list of people she addressed it to:
The confusing past
Although it is not confirmed if it is the same Riley Williams from the Change.org campaign, the pictures do look similar.
On February 19, she added an update to her post, saying, “Hi All, I have added Vermont Governor Phil Scott to the list of people receiving this petition. My reason for doing this is because I am a Vermont resident and he and I share different views on what should be the action after this devastating event. According to Seven Days, Scott believed more drills for active shooters should take place in our schools. That we should take more precautions in case this were to happen.”
“I’m here to put my foot down and say NO. While Vermont is a safe state to live in, others are unfortunately not as safe. We need to be a role model for other states and implement more policies to prevent people who shouldn’t have guns from getting them. This means better background checks, as well as better and more access to mental health care. If we want to make a difference, we need to provide for our communities large and small to make an impact on this world. Phil Scott: make Vermont a role model for the rest of our country!” she continued.
Williams' father, who declined to be identified, said that he took her to the rally with two family friends to simply “witness the spectacle”, and claimed that was separated from them on the afternoon of the riots. Saying she was simply “going with the flow”, he added she had no intention of joining the violence.