- Dawn Bancroft and Diana Santos-Smith were arrested and charged in connection to the Capitol riot.
- The FBI received a tip of a “selfie” video taken at the siege, according to an affidavit.
- Charges include entering a restricted building, disrupting government business, and disorderly conduct.
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Two women charged in connection to the Capitol siege said they were in the building “looking” for House Speaker Nancy Pelosi to “shoot her in the friggin’ brain,” according to an affidavit.
Dawn Bancroft and Diana Santos-Smith were arrested earlier this week in Pennsylvania in relation to the deadly insurrection on January 6, according to a criminal complaint.
Rioters stormed the Capitol building earlier this month as Congress was in session to certify the win of then-President-elect Joe Biden. The breach of the building prompted lawmakers and Vice President Mike Pence to shelter in place.
Five people died in the insurrection.
On January 12, the Federal Bureau of Investigation received a tip of a “selfie” video purportedly taken by Bancroft during the riot at the US Capitol building. In the video, Bancroft and another woman whom the FBI later identified as Santos-Smith were shown “in the process of attempting to exit the US Capitol building in Washington, DC,” according to the affidavit.
“We broke into the Capitol…we got inside, we did our part,” Bancroft said in the video, according to the criminal complaint. “We were looking for Nancy to shoot her in the friggin’ brain but we didn’t find her.”
About a week after the FBI received the tip, for which they did not identify a source, investigators interviewed Santos-Smith and Bancroft. Santos-Smith initially told investigators that she did not physically enter the Capitol building but admitted that she lied after agents presented the aforementioned video to her. Bancroft said she did enter the building.
Santos-Smith said she and Bancroft attended the protest outside the Capitol with no intention of entering the building until she heard people yelling “they’re letting us in,” and told investigators that she thought protesters were being allowed to enter the Capitol.
Santos-Smith said she and Bancroft entered the building through a broken window after an entrance door was too crowded, according to the affidavit. As soon as she entered the Capitol, she told investigators that she knew she should not be going inside.
A screenshot of CCTV footage showed one of the women climbing in through the broken window.
After approximately 30 seconds to one minute inside, Santos-Smith claimed that she and Bancroft exited the building from the same window through which they entered. Bancroft relayed a similar story to investigators, according to the criminal complaint.
Bancroft and Santos-Smith were charged for entering and remaining in a restricted building, disrupting government business, and disorderly conduct.
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