Dawn Bancroft is a Doylestown, Pennsylvania, gym owner who breached the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021, and was later filmed saying she had gone looking for House Speaker Nancy Pelosi “to shoot her in the friggin’ brain.” She pleaded guilty to a single misdemeanor, was sentenced to 60 days in prison in July 2022, and received a full pardon from President Donald Trump in January 2025.
What She Did at the Capitol
Bancroft traveled to Washington with a friend and co-defendant, Diana Santos-Smith. According to the FBI’s criminal complaint, she climbed into the Capitol through a broken window at roughly 3:00 p.m. and told investigators she knew she was entering restricted grounds.1George Washington University Program on Extremism. Dawn Bancroft and Diana Santos-Smith Criminal Complaint NBC News reported she actually entered twice, spending about 15 seconds inside the first time and roughly a minute and 20 seconds the second. Both women said they did not enter any offices or chambers.2NBC News. Jan. 6 Rioter Who Talked About Shooting Nancy Pelosi Sentenced to 60 Days
Leaving the building, Bancroft recorded a selfie video of herself and Santos-Smith in an exit bottleneck. Wearing a red “Make America Great Again” ski cap, she said: “We broke into the Capitol. We got inside, we did our part. We were looking for Nancy to shoot her in the friggin’ brain, but we didn’t find her.”1George Washington University Program on Extremism. Dawn Bancroft and Diana Santos-Smith Criminal Complaint Prosecutors later called the remark “among the most graphic statements uttered by any rioter on Capitol grounds that day,” while acknowledging there was no evidence she actually intended to carry it out.2NBC News. Jan. 6 Rioter Who Talked About Shooting Nancy Pelosi Sentenced to 60 Days
Bancroft did not post the video publicly. Her attorney, Carina Laguzzi, said she sent it to a friend, who alerted the FBI around January 12, 2021. When agents interviewed her on January 20, she admitted recording additional footage inside the Capitol but said she had deleted it and told her children to delete the copies she had sent them.1George Washington University Program on Extremism. Dawn Bancroft and Diana Santos-Smith Criminal Complaint She was arrested on January 29, 2021, in Fort Washington, Pennsylvania.
The Charges and Guilty Plea
Bancroft was initially charged under statutes covering unauthorized entry into restricted buildings and disorderly conduct on Capitol grounds, and a formal information later added counts against both women.3CourtListener. United States v. Bancroft On September 28, 2021, she pleaded guilty to a single Class B misdemeanor under 40 U.S.C. § 5104(e)(2)(G): parading, demonstrating, or picketing in a Capitol building. Prosecutors dropped the remaining three counts. The charge carried a maximum of six months in jail.4CNN. Rioter Who Said She Wanted to Shoot Pelosi Pleads Guilty
She was never charged with threatening a government official, which is a felony. Assistant U.S. Attorney Patrick Murphy told the court the government believed it would be difficult to prove she seriously intended to carry out the threat, in part because she made the statement while leaving the building.4CNN. Rioter Who Said She Wanted to Shoot Pelosi Pleads Guilty
The Judge’s Criticism and Sentencing
U.S. District Judge Emmet G. Sullivan did not let the plea proceed quietly. He described the Pelosi comments as “horrible,” “clearly troubling,” and “outrageous,” and asked prosecutors directly: “Does it not rise to the level of a threat?” He told Bancroft she was “fortunate” not to face higher charges and said her words would be considered at sentencing. He also remarked that “good people who never got into trouble with the law” had “morphed into terrorists” on January 6.5Washington Post. Pelosi Threat Dawn Bancroft Plea
At sentencing on July 21, 2022, Laguzzi asked for no jail time and only a fine, arguing that the Pelosi comment had been made “in jest and bravado” and that Bancroft had already suffered heavily. Sullivan sentenced her to the 60 days in prison prosecutors had requested, plus three years of probation, 100 hours of community service, and a $500 fine. He called her recorded words “reckless statements that people should be held accountable for,” asking: “How many others left there that day [thinking], ‘Hey, next time I come I’m going to bring my bullets for Nancy’?”6UPI. Dawn Bancroft Sentenced
Bancroft, 59 at the time of her arrest and with no prior criminal record, told the court at her plea, “I am going to accept consequences for my actions. It is what I have taught my children.”7George Washington University Program on Extremism. Dawn Bancroft Defense Sentencing Memorandum At sentencing she called her own actions “inappropriate, childish and foolish.”8Bucks County Courier Times. Bucks County GOP Ousts Dawn Bancroft From Doylestown Committee Seat
Consequences Back in Pennsylvania
Her gym, Bucks County Elite Fitness in Doylestown, lost its CrossFit affiliation the day after her arrest and roughly half its clients, which Laguzzi described as leaving the business in an “almost failing state.” Bancroft also received death threats and shut down her social media accounts.2NBC News. Jan. 6 Rioter Who Talked About Shooting Nancy Pelosi Sentenced to 60 Days
In May 2022, while awaiting sentencing, she narrowly won a Republican committeewoman seat for Doylestown Borough Ward 2, Precinct 2. After she was sentenced, the Bucks County Republican Committee’s 100-member executive committee voted on September 8, 2022, to remove her, with only four or five dissenters. Party chair Patricia Poprik said the January 6 actions “go well beyond peaceful assembly” and called removal “clearly necessary.” The vote did not bar her from running for the position again.9Philadelphia Inquirer. Bucks County Republican Committee Ousts Dawn Bancroft State Senator Steve Santarsiero called it “frankly a disgrace that she was allowed to serve a day as an official representative of the local Republican Party.”8Bucks County Courier Times. Bucks County GOP Ousts Dawn Bancroft From Doylestown Committee Seat
The 2025 Trump Pardon
On January 20, 2025, President Trump signed an executive order granting “full, complete and unconditional” pardons to individuals convicted of offenses related to the events at or near the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021, with 14 people receiving commutations instead. Bancroft, who had pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor and completed her sentence, was covered by the order.10PhillyBurbs. Trump Grants Full Pardon for Jan. 6 Charges