Conservative influencer helped steal a table used to assault officers on Jan. 6, FBI says

Ryan J. Reilly
Updated ·3 min read
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WASHINGTON — A conservative influencer was arrested in California on Jan. 6 charges, including helping to steal a table from a Capitol conference room that the FBI says was used to assault officers just feet away at the lower west tunnel, where some of the most brutal attacks on law enforcement took place.

A post by Isabella Deluca on a train with her photo and text that reads,
A post by Isabella Deluca on a train with her photo and text that reads,

Isabella Deluca, a fervent supporter of former President Donald Trump, was arrested in Irvine, California, on Friday, according to court records unsealed Monday. She faces five charges, including a count of theft of government property.

Deluca, according to the FBI, can be seen "removing, and aiding and abetting other rioters in removing, a table from ST-2M" — an office in the Capitol — "and passing it to rioters outside through another broken window." The table "was subsequently used to assault law enforcements officers guarding the Lower West Terrace Tunnel," the FBI said.

Deluca, who has racked up hundreds of thousands of followers on social media, was an ambassador for the conservative group Turning Points USA. She says in an online bio that she interned for former Rep. Lee Zeldin, R-N.Y., and for Rep. Paul Gosar, R-Ariz. (Zeldin left office last year and lost his New York race for governor in 2022.)

Isabella Deluca outside a Capitol building window on Jan. 6, 2021. (U.S. District Court)
Isabella Deluca outside a Capitol building window on Jan. 6, 2021. (U.S. District Court)

The FBI first received a tip about Deluca just three days after the Capitol attack and interviewed her on Jan. 21, 2021, the day after Joe Biden's inauguration, according to the bureau.

"Fight back or let politicians steal [an] election? Fight back!" Deluca allegedly tweeted on the afternoon of Jan. 6.

Images in the FBI affidavit show Deluca helping to pass the table out of the broken window and show that her fellow Jan. 6 defendant Timothy Desjardins, who was arrested in 2021, picked up a wooden table leg and used that leg to assault officers. (Last year, Desjardins was sentenced to 18 years in prison on state charges, separate from his Jan. 6 charges. Plea negotiations in his Jan. 6 case are ongoing.) Another rioter threw the tabletop at officers, the FBI said.

In an Instagram comment after the attack, Deluca posted that she got "maced pretty bad about three times" and that she "used milk to get the mace/tear gas out of my eyes."

Deluca later posted that she had "mixed feelings" about Jan. 6 and then posted that Trump should declare martial law, according to the FBI.

Deluca did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Eli M. Gold, the president of the Gold Institute for International Strategy, told NBC News that Deluca was hired "as an unpaid volunteer media associate" last May and that her role "was to update" its "online social media profile." Gold said that when they learned of the charges against Deluca on Monday, they "felt it necessary to sever our relationship" with her.

More than 1,300 people have been arrested in connection with the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol, and prosecutors have secured more than 950 convictions. About 500 people have been sentenced to periods of incarceration from a few days behind bars to 22 years in federal prison.

This article was originally published on NBCNews.com