Rep. Paul Gosar had no idea his intern was involved in 2021 Capitol riot? I believe him

One of Rep. Paul Gosar’s former interns has been arrested for her role in storming the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.

According to court records, Isabella Maria DeLuca was caught on video climbing through a broken window to enter the Capitol during the insurrection, then passing a stolen table out of another broken window to rioters.

The table was then used as a weapon against police officers.

Twenty months later, DeLuca was back at the Capitol, working for Gosar.

Gosar didn't know? That's believable

She was his intern from September 2022 through January 2023, according to congressional pay records obtained by the Arizona Mirror, but Gosar’s spokesman insists nobody in the office had any idea she was under investigation by the FBI.

“We have no knowledge of any alleged participation in activities on January 6, 2021,” Anthony Foti told the Arizona Mirror’s Jerod MacDonald-Evoy.

I believe him.  Had Gosar known that his intern was one of the rioters who broke into the Capitol, he probably would have … promoted her.

As Arizona’s biggest congressional crackpot, Gosar has long lurked there on what used to be the party’s dark outer fringe — giving a keynote speech at a white nationalists’ conference, courting QAnon and even working briefly with Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene to form an “America First Caucus,” to make America great again one Anglo-Saxon at a time.

According to Stop the Steal organizer Ali Alexander, Gosar was one of three congressmen who helped plan the Jan. 6 rally, hoping to stop Congress from certifying Joe Biden as the winner of the 2020 election.

Gosar demanded Jan. 6 security footage

Of course, Gosar denies it (as do Rep. Andy Biggs of Arizona and former Rep. Mo Brooks of Alabama).

But he’s been an impassioned defender of the Jan. 6 rioters — or as he has called them, “peaceful patriots.”

During a House hearing several months after the events of Jan. 6, Gosar chastised the FBI for having the nerve to ask the public’s help in tracking down those peaceful protesters.

“The DOJ is harassing peaceful patriots across the country,” Gosar complained, during a May 2021 House Oversight Committee hearing into the events of Jan. 6.

“Outright propaganda and lies are being used to unleash the national security state against law-abiding U.S. citizens, especially Trump voters.”

Gosar demanded security footage of what occurred before and during the riot.

“Such footage would provide answers that would contain exculpatory evidence regarding outrageous accusations against members of Congress,” he said, “and most importantly, exonerate the many Americans who peacefully protested and never set foot in the Capitol.”

That footage incriminated his future intern

People like his future intern?

In her initial interview, an FBI investigator says DeLuca claimed she never set foot inside the Capitol.

But court records say video — the very footage Gosar attacked the FBI for collecting — captured her both entering the Capitol through a broken window and passing out a table to rioters.

“This table was subsequently used to assault law enforcement officers guarding the Lower West Terrace Tunnel,” an FBI agent said in a court affidavit, unsealed on Monday.

Gosar's unglued: What's that make his supporters?

Some of the most vicious attacks on police occurred in that tunnel, where the legs of a table — one that looked a lot like the one DeLuca passed through the broken window — were used as clubs and the table itself was hurled at police who were trying to hold the line.

While his future intern was busy arming the rioters, Gosar was actually on the House floor waxing on about Arizona’s stolen election and why Arizona’s vote should be rejected.

“Over 400,000 mail-in ballots were altered, switched from President Trump to Vice President Biden or completely erased from President Trump’s total,” Gosar declared, just seconds before he and his colleagues fled due to all those patriots marching their way.

These charges might bolster her resume

Luckily for Gosar, it is apparently not a federal crime to flat out lie to Congress.

Unluckily for DeLuca, not everybody shares Gosar’s opinion that breaking into the Capitol and tossing out furniture to be used as weapons is an act of patriotism.

DeLuca, 24, who has done volunteer work for Turning Point USA and has a huge social media following among conservatives, was arrested on Friday in California and is facing misdemeanor charges that include theft of government property, disorderly conduct and entering a restricted area.

No doubt, that’ll boost her resume.

In certain congressional circles, at least.

Reach Roberts at laurie.roberts@arizonarepublic.com. Follow her on X, formerly Twitter, at @LaurieRoberts or on Threads at laurierobertsaz.

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This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Gosar intern arrested for role in Jan. 6 Capitol riot? That figures