Official linked to siege resigns post
Conservative activist Sharon Pineo was led from Capitol by police
Sharon Pineo, the Round Lake resident who was involved in Wednesday’s siege on the U.S. Capitol, has resigned as a member of the Malta Zoning Board of Appeals.
Malta Supervisor Darren O’connor said that she submitted a brief letter of resignation to him Monday afternoon.
“I tender this resignation with regret but believe that in these challenging times, it is important not to allow any impediment to the smooth operation of the town business,” Pineo wrote in the letter provided to the Times Union. “It has been my honor to serve on the board. I thank you and former Supervisor (Vincent) Delucia for the opportunity.”
Pineo, who has been on the ZBA since 2018, did not mention anything about her involvement in last Wednesday’s riot when supporters of President Donald Trump stormed the U.S. Capitol while Congress was meeting to certify the 2020 Electoral College vote. While a photo shared on social media shows her being led from the Capitol by police officers with her hands behind her back, there has been no evidence Pineo has been criminally charged.
An officer who answered the phone at the U.S. Capitol Police on Monday said it’s an ongoing investigation and could not provide further information. No one answered the phone at the U.S. Attorney’s office in Washington when the Times Union called.
Pineo helped organize a chartered bus trip to the March on Congress, details of which she put in a post on the Upstate Conservative Coalition Facebook page. It read, in part, “My fellow conservative patriots…our President asks that we, the people assemble at the Capital to declare to Congress that we do not support a stolen election.”
She went on to say she was “coordinating the bus trip/caravan from our area in answer to our President’s call.”
That afternoon a crowd of Trump supporters besieged the Capitol, with some forcing their way past police in riot gear, as well as breaking doors and windows. Rioters were pictured with Trump banners and confederate flags inside the building, and a gallows was constructed nearby with a hanging noose.
Five people have died in connection with the siege, including a rioter who was shot and a Capitol police officer who was struck in the head with a heavy object. Another Capitol police officer who responded to the incursion took his own life on Saturday.
Calls for Pineo to resign surfaced this past weekend after photos of her on the Capitol steps circulated on social media.
The Times Union reached out to Pineo on Sunday and Monday, but Pineo did not return emails or phone calls.
In addition to her role on the ZBA, Pineo ran for village trustee in Round Lake in 2018. Last year, she made an unsuccessful attempt to win the GOP endorsement to run against state Assemblywoman Carrie Woerner for the 113th Assembly District.