An Arizona Republican congressman
hired a woman who participated in the Jan. 6 insurrection while she was
under investigation for breaching the U.S. Capitol and helping others
obtain impromptu weapons that day. 

U.S. Rep. Paul Gosar hired Isabella
Maria DeLuca as an intern in late 2022, well after she had already been
contacted by the FBI and was currently under investigation. DeLuca
worked for Gosar from Sept. 12, 2022, to Jan. 30, 2023, according to
congressional pay data.

In a recently unsealed indictment,
the FBI accuses DeLuca of breaching the Capitol and handing out pieces
of a broken table to rioters outside the building, who went on to use them as weapons against police in an area that became known for its violent clashes.

Gosar’s congressional office
confirmed that DeLuca worked as an intern but said they had no knowledge
of her participation in Jan. 6 or that she was under investigation. 

​​“Isabella
DeLuca was an intern in Congressman Gosar’s office for three months
beginning in the Fall of 2022.  We have no knowledge of any alleged
participation in activities on January 6, 2021,” Anthony Foti,
spokesperson Congressman Gosar said in an emailed statement to the
Arizona Mirror.

DeLuca also had an unpaid volunteer
position for the conservative Tempe-based Turning Point USA. In a
statement to the Arizona Mirror, TPUSA said that she was not an
employee, though she was previously a TPUSA chapter president. 

“She
was an unpaid volunteer ambassador, one of over 200 in the program,”
TPUSA spokesman Andrew Kolvet said in an emailed statement. Kolven added
that this was the first the organization had heard of her involvement
in the events of Jan. 6 or that she was under investigation.

Court documents
reveal that authorities began investigating DeLuca just days after the
violent riot that forced congressional officials to flee for safety from
the rampaging mob. The FBI received a tip three days later identifying
DeLuca as a possible suspect and pointed authorities to some of her
now-deleted social media posts. On Jan. 21, 2021, the FBI interviewed
DeLuca, who said she never entered any restricted areas of the Capitol. 

But video reviewed by the FBI showed
DeLuca in restricted areas of the Capitol recording videos on her phone.
And she was captured on video handing pieces of a table to other people
through a window that had been smashed in. 

The Lower West Terrace of the
Capitol, where DeLuca was photographed and caught on video, was the
location of some of the most vicious fighting between police and
rioters. It is also where one death occurred during the day.

The FBI obtained a search warrant for
DeLuca’s social media and found she spoke about being tear-gassed and
her wish that President Donald Trump would declare martial law so he
could overturn his election loss. 

She also defended her actions to others. 

“I’m wondering why you support the
breaking into the capitol,” one user asked DeLuca in a direct message on
Instagram. She replied, “According to the constitution it’s our
house.” 

This sentiment would be echoed later in a statement she released about Jan. 6 on Jan. 14, 2021. 

“I was there on Jan. 6. I have mixed
feelings. People went to the Capitol building because that’s Our House
and that’s where we go to take our grievances,” DeLuca said. “People
feel, as do I that an election was stolen from them and it was
allowed.” 

There is no evidence that the
election was stolen, though the Trump campaign sought to convince
Republicans in Congress to use that fabricated rationale as a pretext to
reject the presidential electors Biden won in battleground states —
including Arizona — and replace them with fraudulent Trump electors. 

The next day, DeLuca was messaging
others about her hopes that Trump would declare martial law to overturn
the election results. 

“So it talks about how to save the
election with all the fraud that’s happened. I can see from the notes
that he suggests martial law,” DeLuca said in a direct message to
another user. “If Trump declares martial law in 7 states, his campaign
allies could take control of the state’s  (sic) ballots & overturn
the results of the election in Trump’s favor. Which would be ideal.” 

DeLuca also confirmed in a direct message obtained by the FBI that she “deleted a lot” of her own posts on Instagram. 

“Based on my knowledge, training, and
experience, people who commit criminal acts will often delete
information about those acts from social media accounts in an attempt to
thwart any subsequent criminal investigation,” the agent in charge of
the case said in the indictment. 

DeLuca faces five misdemeanor charges
including theft of government property. DeLuca was taken into custody
on Friday in Irvine, California and is awaiting an initial hearing in
Washington D.C.