Feds claim Pa. woman stormed the Capitol on Jan. 6, welcomed fight with counterprotesters

Federal agents say a Pennsylvania woman stormed the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6 and welcomed fights with counterprotesters, allegedly saying she was willing to die for the cause.

In an arrest warrant filed last month and unsealed Wednesday, the FBI said it identified Rachel Myers, a 30-year-old who works at Delilah’s Gentlemen’s Club in Philadelphia, through social media postings, text messages, and photographs where she is seen wearing a Delilah’s-branded backpack. An employee at Delilah’s declined to comment when reached by phone.

A Facebook message sent to Myers on Thursday afternoon was not immediately returned. No attorney for Myers was listed in case files.

Myers was charged along with Michael Gianos, who traveled to Washington with her for the Jan. 6 insurrection, the FBI says. According to the warrant, Myers stayed in a hotel with a man named Lawrence Stackhouse, of Blackwood, N.J. Stackhouse was arrested in March after several tips from coworkers who said it was “common knowledge” he was at the Capitol and had called out of work Jan. 5 and 6 to attend, NJ.com reported.

Stackhouse told investigators that Myers had entered the Capitol on Jan. 6.

It was well-known that Myers attended the riot, with at least one coworker and another tipster notifying the FBI of Facebook posts in which Myers said she was OK with a civil war and commented on a photo of the Capitol riot, calling it a “beautiful sight,” according to the arrest warrant.

In the days after the election of President Joe Biden, Myers and Gianos texted each other expressing the belief that the election had been stolen from Donald Trump and planning a trip to Washington to stop the certification process.

Both Myers and Gianos were arrested Wednesday, according to court documents. Myers was picked up in Philadelphia and Gianos in Marlton, where they are believed to live, respectively.

Gianos and Myers texted about their plans to travel to Washington ahead of the “Stop the Steal” rally, exchanging screenshots of their hotels. At times, the conversation turned to the prospect of getting into physical altercations with counterprotesters, with Myers at one point saying she wasn’t afraid to die, according to court documents.

“And if I died it would be something I was so passionate for so whatever lol,” Myers texted Gianos.

Shortly before 2:30 p.m. Jan. 6, Myers, Gianos, and Stackhouse entered the Capitol, according to court documents. Minutes later, the trio are seen in Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s office suite, where they stayed for less than a minute.

According to text messages Gianos exchanged with unnamed individuals, Gianos admitted to entering Pelosi’s office.

“Yeah I was in there. Stormed Nancy office,” Gianos texted, according to court documents.

In the following days, Gianos texted Stackhouse that he had deleted videos filmed during the riot to avoid arrest before agreeing with Stackhouse that he had no regrets about the day, the documents state. In a Facebook message to another user, Myers said the riot was “one of the best days of my life,” according to the court documents.

In one text exchange between Stackhouse and Myers, Stackhouse called them partners in crime, the FBI said.

Myers is among the more than 50 Pennsylvania residents charged in connection with the Capitol riot.

On Wednesday, federal court documents were unsealed that showed a King of Prussia man had been charged with beating a Washington police officer at the Capitol with a Trump flag until the metal flagpole broke in his hands. Howard Richardson is charged with offenses including assaulting an officer using a dangerous weapon, civil disorder, and act of physical violence on Capitol grounds.