An FBI agent who carried out a search on a January 6 defendant’s home was indicted and charged last month with stealing property during the raid.
It was reported that the agent allegedly stole roughly $2,500 worth of jewelry and cash during the search of the home.
Nicholas Anthony Williams, 36, was indicted in the Southern District of Texas on January 31.
FBI agent Williams is accused of taking money or property from multiple residences during search warrants.
He then allegedly used the money or property for his personal use, a press release from U.S. Attorney Alamdar S. Hamdani said.
Williams is also accused of providing false statements for fraudulent charges on his government-issued credit card and stealing cell phones from the agency.
The January 6 defendant, Houston college student Alexander Fan, was sentenced to 12 months probation for peacefully protesting in the Capitol Building on January 6, had his property stolen by Williams.
The FBI searched Fan’s home after his arrest on non-violent trespassing misdemeanors in June 2023.
Law and Crime reported:
In his statement of offense, prosecutors say Fan’s foray into the Capitol on January 6 began when he left Houston a day earlier, intent on attending former President Donald Trump’s “Stop the Steal” rally at the Ellipse. After the speech was over, Fan walked toward the Capitol where he was soon met with fencing and barricades.
Joined by others, he walked toward the Capitol’s west lawn and then, looking up at “torn scaffolding” according to prosecutors, he ascended the stairs before he climbed atop a riser “where he had a bird’s eye view of the chaos unfolding below as law enforcement officers attempted to stem the tide of protesters coming onto the grounds and into the U.S. Capitol building.”
The 27-year-old said he was not a political person until his friends coaxed him into joining Asians for Trump in 2020 and when he came to the Capitol on January 6, “there were no issues” at first but “then at some point things just got crazy.”
According to the indictment:
Williams “embezzled and wrongfully converted to his own use the money and property of another which came into his possession and under his control in the execution” of his role as a federal agent. In September of that same year, prosecutors say he knowingly made a false statement to explain fraudulent charges on his government-issued credit card and “created and disseminated an [FBI] electronic communication record which he knew to be false.”
Fan reported that several items, including cash and silver bars, had gone missing from his home following the search.
“These items were not seized pursuant to the warrants,” the court filing reads.
The missing items amounted to thousands of dollars, according to his attorney, Mark Thering.
“He was under the assumption, well, that was the last he’d hear from them,” Thering said.
However, prosecutors have not disclosed how many victims or how much more was stolen during the FBI searches.
Williams faces up to 10 years in prison and a maximum fine of $250,000 if convicted.
READ: Relative of Jan 6 Defendant Says Biden’s DOJ Drove Him to Suicide
