The Alaska owner of a boutique hotel in Homer said federal agents searched her home this week, after having mistaken her for another woman in an effort to recover Nancy Pelosi’s stolen laptop.
The House speaker’s computer was reportedly pilfered during the deadly breach of the U.S. Capitol in January.
Marilyn Hueper, who with her husband owns the Homer Inn & Spa in Homer, Alaska, said federal agents broke down the door of their home and confiscated laptop computers and a cellphone and handcuffed them and their guests during the search, according to the Anchorage Daily News.
“I think almost right off the bat, they said, ‘Well, you probably know why we’re here,’ or something like that. It’s like, yeah, no, not really. And they said, ‘Well, we’re here for Nancy Pelosi’s laptop.’ And I said, ‘Oh,’ ” Hueper told local radio station KSRM-AM.
Her husband Paul Hueper’s cellphone was also forensically audited by agents but not confiscated, she said.
When she asked agents why they didn’t just knock, she said they claimed they did but no one answered.
The authorized search was conducted by the FBI and an officer with the Capitol Police.
Chloe Martin, a spokeswoman for the FBI’s Anchorage field office, confirmed to The Associated Press that agents conducted a court-authorized law enforcement activity at the Homer Inn and Spa.
“While individuals are free to speak about their interactions with the FBI, we do not, as a matter of practice, discuss or describe any contact we have or allegedly have with individuals,” she said in a Friday email to the AP. “At this time, and until it reaches the public realm, we can’t discuss the details.”
Hueper told the radio station that agents showed her a photo of a woman that looked remarkably like her and had clothes like hers who they said had been part of the Capitol invasion.
Other photos that the agents had made it more clear that Hueper was not the woman they were looking for, she said, according to the Daily News.
U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, a California Democrat, had one of her laptop computers stolen during the Jan. 6 riot at the U.S. Capitol, authorities have said. (Getty Images/photo illustration)
“I’m like, ‘Wait a minute. Is that her? That’s clearly not me. Why did you not show me this to start with?’ ” Hueper said, according to the newspaper.
Hueper said she and her husband were in Washington, D.C., on a vacation that day and while they decided on a whim to attend the pro-Trump rally on Jan. 6 that preceded the riot, she claims they did not participate in the riot.
She added that she didn’t know Pelosi’s laptop had been stolen until agents told her they were looking for it.
“I said, ‘Oh, so it was stolen and it’s at large, good to know. I thought maybe it was just conspiracy theory, so thanks for the intel,’” she told the radio station.
Around a dozen agents searched the home for about four hours and left the Huepers a copy of the search warrant, she said.
Hueper said she laughed when an agent asked who she was working with, then apologized, saying “I don’t mean to be disrespectful and laughing, but this is really surreal and strange,” she told the radio station.
“I still think it’s funny that they want to take me as someone who was actually there [at the Capitol riot], instead of lost, eating hot dogs at the other end of the Mall,” she said, according to the Daily News.
No arrests were made during the search.
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A Pennsylvania woman was arrested in January in connection with the alleged laptop theft, which Pelosi’s office acknowledged had been taken during the riot. Pelosi’s spokesperson said the laptop was used only for presentations.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.