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Right: Marian Mooney-Rondon. Center: Rafael Rondon. (Images via FBI court filings.)
A woman whose hand was seen touching the laptop that was stolen from Nancy Pelosi’s office during the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol has been convicted for her role in the riot and theft.
Maryann Mooney-Rondon, 56, of Watertown, New York, was found guilty Monday of obstruction of an official proceeding and aiding and abetting the theft of government property. The verdict came from U.S. District Judge Jia Cobb following a stipulated trial, in which Mooney-Rondon and federal prosecutors agreed upon a specific set of facts regarding her actions on Jan. 6, the Justice Department announced in a press release.
According to the statement of stipulated facts, Mooney-Rondon drove with her son Rafael Rondon from Watertown — some 320 miles northwest of New York City — to the Washington, D.C., area on Jan. 5, 2021, to attend Donald Trump’s so-called “Stop the Steal” rally near the White House on Jan. 6. At that event, Trump exhorted his supporters to march to the Capitol and “fight like hell” against Congress’ certification of Joe Biden’s win in the 2020 presidential election. Mooney-Rondon joined that march and entered the building at around 2:23 p.m., around 10 minutes after the building was initially breached by violent rioters who smashed windows and broke doors.
She and her son made their way to then-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s office suite, where they apparently discussed stealing the laptop that they believed belonged to the top Democrat in the House at the time.
“It would be interesting to see what’s on that hard drive,” Mooney-Rondon apparently told an as-yet-unidentified man, according to court documents. She then provided that man with her gloves so that he could “retrieve the laptop computer without leaving fingerprint evidence on the device.”
The man then took the computer.
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Afterwards, Mooney-Rondon and her son were seen in the Senate Gallery, where they stole a bag containing an “emergency escape hood,” which contains an air-filtering device that members of Congress and their staff keep on hand to use in case of emergencies. They eventually left the building after about 30 minutes inside, at 2:52 p.m.
According to the federal docket, Mooney-Rondon was also charged with six trespassing and disorderly conduct misdemeanors that carried a combined potential four years behind bars. She was not convicted of those charges.
Mooney-Rondon faces up to 20 years in prison on the obstruction charge and up to one year for the theft charge, plus potential financial penalties.
Her conviction marks the latest development in the prosecution for those accused in stealing then-House Speaker Pelosi’s laptop from her office in the Capitol. Mooney-Rondon’s son Rafael Rondon, 25, pleaded guilty in December to the felony obstruction charge. He is set to be sentenced in June.
On Thursday, Riley June Williams, who was charged — but not convicted — of stealing the laptop and possibly trying to sell it to Russian intelligence was sentenced to three years behind bars. According to prosecutors, when Williams was in Pelosi’s office she told another rioter to “put on gloves” in order to avoid leaving fingerprints on the computer.
Cobb, a Biden appointee, set Mooney-Rondon’s sentencing for July 18.
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