A woman whose Facebook comments led to her husband's arrest in the Capitol riot said she never dreamed her posts would be used against him
- Gary Edwards, of Pennsylvania, was sentenced to a year of probation in the January 6 Capitol riot.
- He was arrested earlier this year after his wife made Facebook posts about his participation.
A woman whose Facebook posts led to her husband's arrest after he participated in the January 6 Capitol riot said at his sentencing on Monday that she never expected that her social-media comments would be used against him.
Gary Edwards, of Churchville, Pennsylvania, was sentenced to a year of probation on Monday and ordered to pay a $2,500 fine and $500 in restitution over his role in the insurrection, court filings seen by Insider said.
At Edwards' sentencing, his wife, Lyn Edwards, told a judge that she was speaking "off the cuff" when she wrote about her husband's experience inside the Capitol in now deleted Facebook posts to friends, The Philadelphia Inquirer reported.
"Never in my life could I have dreamed that something I posted on Facebook would be used against my husband, would lead him to be arrested," she said in court, The Inquirer reported.
The FBI said Lyn Edwards' first Facebook post about the riot started, "Okay ladies let me tell you what happened as my husband was there inside the Capitol Rotunda."
She went on to say her husband chatted with police, walked around carrying flags, and witnessed people singing the national anthem.
"These were people who watched their rights being taken away, their votes stolen from them, their state officials violating the constitutions of their country, and people who are not being given the opportunity to be able to have evidence shown," she said in one post, the FBI said.
Screenshots of her Facebook posts were later sent to the FBI by an anonymous tipster, the FBI said.
Lyn Edwards told the judge that she later watched a New York Times video of the riot "in horror" and wished she'd been in Washington, DC, with her husband on the day of the insurrection, The Inquirer reported.
"In our relationship, I am the one who is much more observant and alert to my surroundings," she said, The Inquirer reported.
Gary Edwards pleaded guilty in September.
The FBI has used the internet to find rioters, asking for the public's help to identify them in January. Social-media sleuths identifying Capitol rioters online have led to numerous arrests.
A New York man was arrested and charged for his alleged involvement in the riot after a woman sent the FBI screenshots of their conversation on the dating app Bumble, in which he said he stormed the Capitol, Insider reported. A Michigan man was arrested in December after he bragged about his participation in the riot on social media, the Department of Justice said.
Facebook was a hub for social-media users planning the attack on the Capitol, said an internal report reviewed by BuzzFeed News. Members of pro-Trump Facebook groups, including "Stop the Steal," which amassed more than 365,000 users before it was banned after making "worrying calls for violence," contributed to the Capitol riot, the report said.