A conservative social media influencer has been arrested in connection with her involvement in the riots at the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021, including allegations that she helped steal a table that the FBI says was used to attack officers Court documents.
Influencer Isabella DeLuca, 24, was arrested Friday in Irvine, California, in Orange County on multiple charges, including theft of government property, entering a restricted building, disorderly conduct and demonstrating in a Capitol building.
According to a complaint filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, Ms. DeLuca participated in and livestreamed the insurrection, during which an angry mob attacked the Capitol and helped steal a table that was used as a weapon against law enforcement became.
After Ms. DeLuca “walked out the window at the table,” according to the complaint, she appeared to use her cell phone to record videos or take photos of riots. She later deleted several social media posts related to the attack, likely “attempting to thwart subsequent criminal investigations,” according to the complaint filed by an FBI agent.
Ms. DeLuca could not immediately be reached for comment Monday and it was not clear from court documents whether she had an attorney. According to public records, she is a registered Republican. Ms. DeLuca was released the day she was arrested, her mother, Gina DeLuca, said by phone Monday. She declined to comment on the charges or her daughter’s case.
According to the complaint, the FBI first became aware of Ms. DeLuca three days after the attack, when the agency received a tip that she had deleted social media posts related to her involvement in the insurrection. In an interview with the FBI on January 21, 2021, Ms. DeLuca admitted to being at the Capitol on January 6 but denied entering the building. Her mother confirmed the report to the agency and said she saw her daughter’s Instagram live stream from outside the Capitol, the complaint says.
Subpoenaed bank records showed Ms. DeLuca traveled by train from New York City to Washington on Jan. 5, 2021, and made a purchase at Dunkin’ Donuts two miles from the Capitol on the day of the insurrection, the FBI said.
Shortly before 3 p.m. on January 6, 2021, Ms. DeLuca wrote on social media, “Strike back or let politicians steal the election? Strike back!” Shortly after, she sent a private message to another user on Instagram confirming that She made her way to the Capitol, the FBI said. Surveillance footage also showed her there, the agency said.
The footage showed Ms. DeLuca entering the Capitol through a broken window, where she and other rioters removed a table and passed it to others outside through another broken window, the FBI said. She continued to take photos as other rioters continued to steal furniture, including a lamp and a chair, and pass them on to the rioters outside.
“At some point in the melee, the table legs were broken off,” the complaint states, and one of them was used by a rioter to attack a police officer. Another rioter appeared to use the table itself to attack law enforcement, the FBI said.
Shortly before 6 p.m., according to the complaint, Ms. DeLuca “sent a message to an acquaintance on Instagram saying, ‘This is crazy here’ and ‘I was knocked down and a sound bomb exploded right next to me.'” She continued to post about the attack on social media the next few days.
“I was there on January 6th. I have mixed feelings,” she wrote on Jan. 14, the FBI said. She added: “People went to the Capitol because that is our house and we go there to receive our grievances. People, like me, feel like an election was stolen from them and allowed to happen.”
Ms. DeLuca is among more than 1,200 people charged in connection with the Jan. 6 attack, in which an angry mob, egged on by President Donald J. Trump’s lies about stealing the 2020 election, sought to overturn the certification from preventing the results. Federal prosecutors have called the ongoing criminal investigation into that day’s events the largest in the Justice Department’s history.
Sheelagh McNeill contributed to the research.
Source link
2024-03-18 23:35:10
www.nytimes.com