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A New York mother and son were charged in connection with the theft of Nancy Pelosi staff's laptop during the Capitol riot

Oct 6, 2021, 06:34 IST
Business Insider
Mooney-Rondon and her son in the crowd during the January 6 Capitol insurrection. The Department of Justice.
  • A mother and son were charged in connection with the theft of a laptop belonging to Nancy Pelosi's aid during the Capitol riot.
  • Maryann Mooney-Rondon and Rafael Rondon were arrested on Friday, according to court documents.
  • They were captured on surveillance video and bystander recordings inside the House Speaker's conference room.
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A New York mother and son accused of aiding in the theft of a laptop belonging to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's congressional staff during the January 6 Capitol riot were arrested last week, months after the FBI initially conducted a raid on an Alaska home in April while searching for the stolen computer.

Maryann Mooney-Rondon, 55, and her son Rafael Rondon, 23, of Watertown, New York, were arrested on Friday in connection with the stolen laptop, according to court documents reviewed by Insider. Both face additional charges related to their participation in the Capitol attack earlier this year.

The FBI received a tip in May identifying Mooney-Rondon and her son in a series of photographs taken during the insurrection, court documents said. Cell phone location data retrieved by investigators placed the duo near the Capitol building on January 6.

Surveillance video from inside the building captured Mooney-Rondon and Rondon entering Pelosi's conference room around 2:30 p.m. that afternoon, prosecutors said. A 5-second video recorded by a bystander reportedly shows a person reaching toward a laptop and gloves both sitting on a conference table. According to a criminal complaint, rings seen on the individual's hand are consistent with images of Mooney-Rondon caught on surveillance footage throughout the building.

In the video, a female voice can reportedly be heard saying, "Dude, put on gloves," while an unidentified man uses the gloves to pick up the laptop. The recording also shows another male, dressed in a consistent manner as Rondon, standing across the table near the laptop, according to court documents.

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A screengrab of a bystander video taken in Nancy Pelosi's conference room on January 6. The Department of Justice

Investigators confirmed that a laptop was stolen from Pelosi's conference room on January 6. The Associated Press reported that the laptop was only used for presentations.

During a voluntary interview, Mooney-Rondon admitted to being in the Capitol and Pelosi's conference room that day, according to the complaint. She also reportedly acknowledged providing gloves or a scarf to help a man steal Pelosi's laptop without leaving his fingerprints.

In a separate interview, Rondon also admitted to aiding the theft, telling investigators he helped put the laptop in a bag using a glove, prosecutors said.

"While we were in the office, one of the [individuals], he was trying to rip the ethernet cords to one of the laptops, and he yelled at me and my mother to help him," the complaint quotes Rondon as saying. "And I was honestly a little bit afraid, because I didn't know if he had anything on him . . . So I assisted him a little bit, and that was probably stupid of me."

The complaint notes that a couple of weeks before receiving a tip identifying Mooney-Rondon and her son in photos, FBI agents obtained a search warrant for a home in Alaska, based in part on evidence showing the two residents, a husband and wife, trespassed during the January 6 riot. At least two witnesses reportedly misidentified Mooney-Rondon as the female resident of the Alaska home in photos from the scene.

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Mooney-Rondon and Rondon both appeared in federal court on Friday in Syracuse, New York, and were released pending further proceedings, according to The AP.

Neither mother, nor son had attorney information available and could not be reached for comment.

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