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A Capitol rioter who said she wanted to shoot Nancy Pelosi in 'the friggin' brain' was sentenced to 2 months in prison

Jul 22, 2022, 04:50 IST
Business Insider
Trump supporters clash with police and security forces as they storm the US Capitol in Washington, DC, on January 6, 2021.Olivier Douliery/AFP via Getty Images
  • A Capitol rioter who threatened Nancy Pelosi on January 6, 2021, was sentenced this week.
  • Dawn Bancroft filmed a video of herself that day saying she wanted to shoot Pelosi in the head.
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A Capitol rioter who said she wanted to shoot House Speaker Nancy Pelosi in the head during the insurrection was sentenced to two months in prison earlier this week.

Dawn Bancroft pleaded guilty to one misdemeanor charge of parading, demonstrating, or picketing in a Capitol building in September 2021.

She initially faced four counts related to her role in the January 6, 2021, attack, including entering and remaining in a restricted building and disorderly conduct in a Capitol building. But as the government works to prosecute the more than 870 people arrested in connection with the attack, federal prosecutors have offered some rioters lesser charges in exchange for their guilty pleas.

Bancroft was arrested just weeks after the siege after the FBI received a tip including a video that was filmed by Bancroft during the attack, according to court documents. In the "selfie" video, Bancroft and her friend, Diana Santos-Smith, could be seen trying to exit the Capitol building during the riot. Prosecutors said the video showed a mob of Trump supporters bottlenecked at an exit point.

"We broke into the Capitol ... we got inside, we did our part," Bancroft can be heard saying in the video, according to court documents.

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"We were looking for Nancy to shoot her in the friggin' brain, but we didn't find her," she added.

A still taken from the video Dawn Bancroft filmed trying to exit the Capitol on January 6, 2021.Department of Justice

Investigators said they believed Bancroft was referencing House Speaker Nancy Pelosi in her comments.

In a January 20, 2021 interview, Bancroft told an FBI agent that she and Santos-Smith entered the Capitol through a broken window. She admitted to knowing that she was entering a restricted area when she climbed through the window, according to court documents. Bancroft also told investigators that she later deleted the video of her and Santos-Smith exiting the building after sending it to her children. She subsequently instructed her kids to delete the video as well, prosecutors said.

Bancroft and Santos-Smith were arrested in Pennsylvania soon after.

A defense attorney for Bancroft argued in a court filing that her client did not literally mean to threaten Pelosi's life that day. Judge Emmet Sullivan told Bancroft in court on Wednesday that he was particularly disturbed by the comments and had initially considered a longer sentence before prosecutors recommended two months, according to CNN.

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A lawyer for Bancroft did not immediately respond to Insider's request comment.

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