The rioter who declared in a video that she would murder House Speaker Nancy Pelosi if she found the Democratic leader during the January 6 attack on the US Capitol is due to be released from prison this week.
Dawn Bancroft was sentenced to 60 days incarceration and three years of probation for her role in the January 6 attack. During her departure, she made her intentions clear in a selfie-style video during which she declared that she wanted “to shoot her in the fricking brain”, referring to the House leader whom she had named seconds earlier.
News of her impending release was first reported by Scott MacFarlane at CBS News.
The Justice Department’s investigation into January 6 has led to the charging and convictions of hundreds of participants in the attack so far. In recent months, it has been reported that the probe is increasinly centred around the White House and the actions of Donald Trump’s team leading up to and during the attack.
The rhetoric espoused by Ms Bancroft in her own video is one of many pieces of evidence that directly contradicts the narrative being spun by Republicans, particularly those closely aligned with Mr Trump, in the more than two years since the attack. Some, like Congressman Andrew Clyde, have famously referred to the rioters as protesters or “tourists”, while claiming falsely that persons in the crowd were unarmed.
In fact, members of the far-right Oath Keepers were stockpiling weapons at a nearby hotel across the river in Virginia, and others in the crowd were reported by DC Metropolitan Police throughout the day with rifles and other weapons held illegally in the district.
Republicans in general have openly mocked Democrats for claiming they feared for their lives during the attack, even as footage of their own fleeing from rioters has emerged as have desperate text messages sent by Republicans in Congress to the White House sent with the hope of convincing Donald Trump to call off the attackers.
Violent rhetoric targeting Ms Pelosi in particular is being viewed with new scrutiny this week in the wake of a shocking attack carried out at Ms Pelosi’s home, where police say a man broke in and assaulted her husband with a hammer while making threats towards the House leader. It has since been reported that the man was a follower of conspiracy theories spread about Democrats including the speaker.
One member of Congress, Marjorie Taylor Greene, even remains stripped of her committee memberships thanks to past endorsements of violence against the Democratic House leader by social media accounts operated in her name.
