- A West Virginia National Guard member pleaded guilty to one Capitol riot charge this week.
- Jamie Lynn Ferguson took leave to travel to Washington DC to attend the "Stop the Steal" rally.
- She later told investigators that she went to the Capitol in hopes of seeing Trump again.
A member of the West Virginia National Guard who wore a "Trump girl" sweatshirt while storming the US Capitol on January 6, 2021, pleaded guilty to one misdemeanor Capitol riot charge this week.
Jamie Lynn Ferguson, 44, initially faced four charges related to her role in the insurrection, including entering and remaining in a restricted building and disorderly conduct. But as the government works to prosecute the more than 870 people arrested in connection with the attack, federal prosecutors have offered some rioters lesser charges in exchange for their guilty pleas.
Ferguson on Wednesday pleaded guilty to one count of parading, demonstrating, or picketing in a Capitol building. The charge carries a maximum possible penalty of six months in prison, as well as a $5,000 fine.
Ferguson was arrested in May of this year after the FBI identified her in video footage wearing a dark-blue sweatshirt that read "Trump girl" and carrying a green backpack as she entered the Capitol building, according to court documents.
In January 2021, the Office of Special Investigations for the Department of the Air Force submitted a report to the FBI confirming that Ferguson, who was a member of the West Virginia National Guard, was suspected of having participated in the riot. The agency confirmed that she was on leave from January 5 to January 7 and said she had listed her destination as Washington, DC, according to a criminal complaint.
In a January 2021 interview with the FBI, Ferguson said she attended the "Stop the Steal" rally with her parents, who both left before the siege broke out, prosecutors said. She told officers that she continued to the US Capitol in hopes that she would be able to see former President Donald Trump again.
Investigators also reviewed Ferguson's social media accounts in the aftermath of the riot. Days before the attack, prosecutors said she posted a "picture of a crowd in front of the US Capitol building with a storm cloud and Mt Rushmore above the building that read 'Jan 6, 2021 — A Storm of Patriots will fight for the Republic, this will be an historic day.'"
An attorney for Ferguson did not immediately respond to Insider's request for comment. She is set to be sentenced in November.