FBI arrests 2 more Pennsylvania residents in U.S. Capitol attack; 1 sought Nancy Pelosi
Two Pennsylvania women, one a Doylestown-area gym owner, were arrested Friday on charges of joining other protesters in storming the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, according to an FBI “most wanted” list on the U.S. Department of Justice website.
Dawn Bancroft and Diana Santos-Smith are charged with “knowingly entering or remaining in any restricted building or grounds without lawful authority, knowingly engaging in disorderly or disruptive conduct in any restricted building or grounds and violent entry and disorderly conduct on Capitol grounds.”
Bancroft is the owner of Cross Fit Sine-Pari on Easton Road in Plumstead, according to the business’ website. Messages left for Bancroft at the gym were not returned Saturday. Santos Smith could not be reached for comment.
Court records say Bancroft filmed herself and Santos-Smith joining other protesters, supporting then-President Donald Trump, in storming the Capitol in a bid to stop Congress from certifying the results of the Electoral College that choose Joe Biden as president.
According to the criminal complaint, Bancroft in the video said, “We broke into the Capitol … we got inside, we did our part. We were looking for Nancy to shoot her in the friggin’ brain but we didn’t find her.”
The complaint states the investigating agent, whose name is blocked out in the document, “believes that the ‘Nancy’ Bancroft was referencing is Speaker of the House, Nancy Pelosi.”
The FBI got a tip about the video Jan. 12, six days after the Capitol attack, according to the complaint.
Investigators interviewed both women Jan. 20. Information about their initial appearances in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania was not immediately available.
Santos-Smith at first denied entering the Capitol. When shown the video, she then admitted she, Bancroft and others entered the building through a broken window, the complaint states.
Santos-Smith knew they shouldn’t be in the building, she said. She and Bancroft were inside for 30 seconds to a minute and didn’t enter any chambers or offices.
Santos-Smith said she filmed their time in the building on her cellphone and initially deleted the video footage afterward so law enforcement wouldn’t see it, the complaint states. She said she and Bancroft exited the building through the same window.
Bancroft likewise admitted to following the crowd into the building and being aware she was entering restricted grounds, but said she didn’t see any barriers being breached. She said she was inside 20 to 30 seconds before deciding to exit.
Bancroft admitted to filming herself in the building, sending her children the footage and then deleting it and telling her children to do the same, the complaint states.
Investigators viewed images, taken from both women’s cellphones and the Capitol building’s closed-circuit TV cameras, of the women trying to enter the building. Bancroft and Santos-Smith are among more than 160 people charged by the FBI in connection with the Capitol attack, including Washington Township, Lehigh County, resident Craig Bingert. Three people died from medical emergencies and a fourth was fatally shot by police. A police officer died the next day from injuries suffered while trying to stop protesters.