Jan. 6 defendant got 2 congressional internships after she allegedly breached the building

In the three years since the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol, Isabella DeLuca gained a right-wing following and burnished her résumé with two internships in the offices of GOP members of Congress.

On Monday, the political social media influencer was criminally charged for storming the Capitol and helping to force the evacuation of the very chamber from which she would later draw a modest salary. Prosecutors say that she planted herself in the middle of one of the most chaotic scenes of the violent day and helped remove a wooden table from a Capitol office that other rioters would later break apart and hurl at police.

DeLuca stands apart from the other 1,300 people charged in the Jan. 6 riot for one reason: She’s the first known member of the mob who would take a position in Congress after her role in the riot.

Screenshots culled from her social media accountsby open-source researchers tracking participants in the Jan. 6 riot indicate DeLuca began in the office of then-Rep. Lee Zeldin (R-N.Y.), a prominent Trump ally, in April 2021, just three months after her alleged role in the attack. In late 2022, she started a fall internship in the office of Rep. Paul Gosar (R-Ariz.), one of the staunchest backers of Trump’s bid to overturn the 2020 election. DeLuca remained with Gosar, according to congressional salary records, until Jan. 2023. During her brief stint in that office, the Jan. 6 select committee released its findings related to the attack.

Aides to Gosar and Zeldin say they never learned that DeLuca had been part of the Jan. 6 crowd that day.

“Isabella DeLuca was an intern in Congressman Gosar’s office for three months beginning in the fall of 2022.” said Anthony Foti, a Gosar spokesman. “We have no knowledge of any alleged participation in activities on January 6, 2021.”

"Apparently, she briefly volunteered unpaid to help a staff member in the district,” a person close to Zeldin told POLITICO. “There was no awareness she was at the Capitol on January 6th, 2021.”

DeLuca did not respond to a request for comment. Outside of her trip to the Capitol on Jan. 6, it’s unclear if she spent any time in the building as part of her internships. The FBI’s statement of the case indicated that DeLuca is a New York resident, and many Hill offices operated remote internships because of lingering Covid-era policies. The FBI’s account of the case also noted that DeLuca appeared to have removed social media posts in the timeframe between late 2020 and early 2021, so it’s unclear whether congressional offices would have seen them if they vetted her as an incoming intern.

DeLuca has 334,000 followers on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter, and late Monday she posted a link on her account to raise money for her legal defense.

Though she appears to be the first to get a paying position after Jan. 6, DeLuca is not the only figure connected to the events of Jan. 6 to have worked for or in Congress.

One prominent member of the mob that day, Oath Keepers founder Stewart Rhodes, spent a year on the staff of former Rep. Ron Paul (R-Texas) in the 1990s. Others who didn’t participate in the riot but were more closely associated with Donald Trump’s 2020 election efforts have also since come to Congress.

That group includes Thomas Lane, a former campaign staffer who helped organize the pro-Trump slates of electors and now works forthe House Administration Committee, and Maggie Mulvaney, an organizer of Trump’s Jan. 6 rally, who has worked for Rep. Carol Miller (R-W.Va.) since 2021. Max Miller, who worked on Trump’s advance team in 2020 and sat for a combative interview with the Jan. 6 committee, is now a member of the House from Ohio.