Poor old Jan 6th insurrectionist Riley Williams — AKA Nazi Girl — will have to keep wearing that ankle monitor until her trial begins. And frankly, the judge didn’t go for all her other requests to relax other home detention restrictions. Seems that Riley Williams has been a bad girl and not followed the conditions of home detention.
In late May, Williams had asked Jackson to remove her from electronic location monitoring, via an electronic ankle bracelet. In her motion, attorney Ulrich cited Williams’ “good behavior and her employment” since her arrest, and subsequent home detention, since her arrest in January of 2021.
Jackson, a Barack Obama appointee, was not convinced.
“Given the evidence adduced at the time of defendant’s release establishing not only a risk of flight, but also a risk that the investigation would be obstructed, and given the supervising officer’s assessment that ‘removal of the location monitoring condition would be premature and unwarranted’ because the defendant ‘has not demonstrated a willingness to consistently comport to the release conditions,’ defendant’s motion will be denied,” Jackson wrote in her order.
Now, you might be trying to remember, “Who is Nazi Girl?”
Riley June Williams, who was accused of stealing a laptop used by the staff of Nancy Pelosi during the Jan. 6 insurrection, appears to be a member of a neo-Nazi chatroom, according to screenshots given to VICE. Using an alias, it’s believed Williams made posts in a chatroom called “The Camps”, which has been linked to white supremacist Christopher Pohlhaus. Bellingcat researchers previously found a video Williams made before Jan. 6 in which she gave the “Heil Hitler” salute before giving a nod to Pohlhaus.
And her boyfriend had plans to shoot up a synagogue.
But because she was a young white woman, it melted the heart of a Trump appointed judge by the name of Zia Faruqui how gave poor old Riley Williams home detention instead of jail. This was after she did the following:
“The record reflects that the defendant initially tried to evade arrest by leaving her home, deleting her social media accounts, and changing her phone number,” U.S. District Judge Amy Berman Jackson wrote in her order, issued Wednesday, denying Riley June Williams‘ modification request (citations omitted).
Williams is accused of stealing a laptop from Pelosi’s office during the melee at the Capitol on Jan. 6. According to prosecutors, a witness had told investigators that Williams intended to send the computer device to a friend in Russia, who then planned to sell the device to SVR, Russia’s foreign intelligence service.
Prosecutors also allege that Williams had tried to evade arrest by leaving her home, telling her mother that she would be gone for a few weeks, changing her telephone number, and deleting her social media account. Her lawyer, Lori Ulrich, has said that Williams was fleeing an abusive ex-boyfriend.
Riley Williams decided not to follow those home detention restrictions, by the way.
Needless to say, Judge Jackson was not impressed.
“The fact that defendant has been released under conditions for a significant period of time does not demonstrate that the flight risk has been ameliorated or that there is some change of circumstances in this case,” Jackson wrote. “Moreover, the supervising Probation Officer is not at all satisfied that the defendant has been in full compliance or is a good candidate for a less restrictive plan.”
Jackson then pointed to several examples of Williams allegedly violating her pretrial conditions — including apparently asking her mother, serving as her custodian, to lie on her behalf — citing a report from the pretrial services and probation offices.
In all honesty, Judge Jackson was still too nice to Nazi Girl. I would have thrown her ass into jail. But she’s a “nice” white woman, so she gets a pass.