(JustPatriots.com)- On Friday, a mother and son duo from New York were arrested and charged with stealing items from the office of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi during the January 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol building.
Until now, the pair — Rafael Rondon, 23, and his mother Maryann Mooney-Rondon, 55 — had not been brought in on their charges. But that all changed for the two from Watertrown, New York, when they were arrested last week.
According to documents filed in court, the pair were charged with misdemeanors that include disorderly conduct in a restricted building and theft of government property. They are also charged with a felony for obstructing an official proceeding.
The son was additionally charged with possession of a sawed-off shotgun that is unregistered.
On January 6, the two walked into the Capitol building and into Pelosi’s office. While there, they took two escape hoods from her office before exiting the building. The escape hoods are basically head coverings that are meant to protect Congress members from potential poisonous gas attacks.
In addition to those charges, prosecutors are accusing the mother and son of helping another rioter steal a laptop that was sitting in Pelosi’s office on a conference table.
It’s allegedly the same laptop prosecutors say was stolen with the aid of Riley June Williams. The 22-year-old Pennsylvania woman filmed someone else stealing that laptop and then bragging about it online afterwards.
The attorney for Williams has said those accusations are “false.” The video in question is only a few seconds long, and federal agents believe that Williams is the one who filmed it.
According to an affidavit, Mooney-Rondon told the investigators that she gave gloves to someone who was trying to steal Pelosi’s laptop. Her son then said that he helped the person in question place that laptop into a bag.
According to the affidavit, Rafael said to the FBI:
“While we were in the office, one of the [individuals] … was trying to rip the ethernet cords to one of the laptops, and he yelled at me and my mother to help him. And I was honestly a little bit afraid … So I assisted him a little bit, and that was probably stupid of me.”
Investigators took months to finally track down the mother and son in this case. Back in April, the FBI incorrectly raided the home of a Donald Trump supporter who lives in Alaska, Marilyn Hueper. FBI agents believed she was the older woman who was pictured in videos of the incident.
Agents then realized that Hueper wasn’t suspected of entering the U.S. Capitol building, so the investigation had to continue.
The mother and son were just two of many people who entered Pelosi’s office during the attack on the Capitol building. One person, Richard Barnett, was photographed lounging in a chair in her office with his feet placed on a desk.
