ANCHORAGE, Alaska — "We're looking for Nancy Pelosi's laptop," FBI agents told Marilyn Hueper after briefly handcuffing her.

Hueper shot back: "That still doesn't explain why you're in my home. Or in Homer, Alaska."

The search for the House speaker's laptop had taken a U.S. Capitol Police officer thousands of miles away from home for an FBI raid on Hueper's home, looking for something stolen during the Jan. 6 insurrection — and the person who did it.

The agents would walk out of Hueper's home with iPads, cellphones and a pocket-sized copy of the Declaration of Independence. They took a laptop, but it wasn't from Pelosi's office. And it's possible they may have the wrong person altogether — even though Hueper looks strikingly similar to the thief.

The Justice Department’s massive prosecution of those who stormed the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6 has not been without its problems, including this potential instance of mistaken identity. And as Republicans are increasingly seeking to minimize the insurrection and play down the horror of the day, any missteps by federal prosecutors could be used in that effort to discredit what actually happened.

Federal prosecutors have charged more than 400 people, the largest undertaking by the department, including scores of defendants who posted images of their crimes online and boasted about breaking into the hallowed building. Some are facing serious charges and considerable prison time.

Hueper and her husband first came to officials’ attention this year when Alaska Airlines in February banned the couple for refusing to wear masks on a flight, according to court documents obtained by The Associated Press. Then two other people called in tips saying they recognized Hueper in photos that authorities had released of suspects wanted for storming the Capitol.

The insurrectionists sought to disrupt the certification of President Joe Biden's victory. Hundreds of officers were injured and five people died after the riot, including a Capitol Police officer.

Supporters of then-President Donald Trump ransacked offices, rifled through lawmakers’ papers and desks, smashed through glass, shattered windows and tore down signs. Among the items stolen: the laptop from Pelosi’s office, her lectern, an iPad belonging to Majority Whip Rep. Jim Clyburn and other electronics.

But the volume of people inside the Capitol building, along with the lack of arrests made at the time of the riot, has made it difficult to identify people, even with the glut of social media evidence. Federal agents have dug through thousands of social media posts, gotten sweeping warrants to obtain information on cellphones in the area of the Capitol, used facial recognition tools and obtained logs of devices that signed into the congressional Wi-Fi during the riot.

But by far the most effective tool for federal agents has been old-fashioned tips. Many of the rioters have been ratted out by their friends and family members.

The warrant, obtained by the AP, identifies Hueper as the woman who took the laptop.

But they’re wrong, Hueper insists. She told the AP that another woman wearing her same coat and with a similar hairstyle was inside the Capitol during the insurrection, not her. She admits she was in Washington, D.C., for Trump's rally that day but says she didn't get any closer than 100 yards (91 metres) from the Capitol and spent part of the day being lost in an unfamiliar city.

She said agents showed her one photo of the woman inside the Capitol, and they looked so similar that Hueper wondered if someone had used photo-editing software to put her in the photograph.

The warrant details how FBI agents located an image showing Hueper wearing similar clothing in a photo on her husband's Instagram account. It said Hueper's husband had also posted photos of them near the Capitol. "BEST OF 2020," he wrote in one, showing her from behind nearing the building. "Marilyn approaching the Capital. As Patriots, there is a righteous revolution to take back our country … To be there was a once-in-a-lifetime experience. STOP THE STEAL!"

Hueper said an agent came back with a different and larger photo of the woman, which showed the suspected thief wearing a black sweater with large white snowflakes on it. The agent asked where in the house they could locate the sweater.

Hueper said she reiterated she wasn’t inside the building. "No. 2, why didn't you show me this photo to start with? Because we can both obviously see here this is a different person."

Plus, she said, the sweater was hideous.

Hueper said she grabbed the photo and held it next to her face, asking the female agent to look at both closely, "Me. Her. Me. Her," she told the agent. Hueper said the agent grabbed the paper and walked off.

Both women were wearing black Columbia down coats. However, in a photo posted on her husband's Facebook page from Jan. 6, Hueper is shown wearing a black face mask, a green blouse open at the collar and a light green scarf. The surveillance video released by the FBI shows the sought-after woman wearing the black sweater with a snowflake print and dangling earrings. Also, the woman in the photo has detached earlobes, while Hueper says hers are attached.

After insisting, Hueper was shown the front page of the warrant but not allowed to thoroughly read the document, she said. She read it only after receiving a copy as the dozen or so agents and Capitol Police officer left.

According to the search warrants, agents could collect any electronics that might be suspected to have been involved, items stolen from the Capitol, a laptop with descriptors and a serial number — "which they didn't find," she said — and any paperwork related to planning violence.

Hueper said she has not heard back from federal authorities, nor have agents returned her laptop, two iPads, two cellphones or the 50-cent pocket-sized Declaration of Independence booklet they confiscated April 28.

She has not been arrested. Justice Department officials would say only that the investigation is ongoing.

But she decided to go public with her story, just in case.

"I better go online and protect myself before they call me in and make me this person," she said.

___

Balsamo reported from Washington.

Mark Thiessen And Michael Balsamo, The Associated Press

AUSTIN, Texas — Texas would ban abortions after as early six weeks — before many women know they are pregnant — and allow private citizens to enforce the rule through civil lawsuits against doctors and others under a measure given preliminary approval by the GOP-dominated state House on Wednesday.

The move would have Texas join about a dozen other Republican-led states to pass so-called "heartbeat bills” which have been mostly blocked by federal courts.

A similar version has already passed the state Senate, and any differences will have to be negotiated before the bill goes to Republican Gov. Greg Abbott. The governor has suggested he would sign it into law.

The Texas bill would ban abortions after the first detection of an embryonic "heartbeat.” Advanced technology can detect an electric signal flutter as early as six weeks into a pregnancy, even though the embryo isn’t yet a fetus and doesn’t have a heart. An embryo is termed a fetus beginning in the 11th week of pregnancy, medical experts say.

"Once that heartbeat is detected, that life is protected," said Rep. Shelby Slawson, the House sponsor of the measure said before the bill passed 81-63. "For far too long, abortion has meant the end of a beating heart."

A unique provision in the Texas bill prohibits state officials from enforcing the ban.

Instead, it allows anyone, even someone outside of Texas, to sue a doctor or anyone else who may have helped someone get an abortion after the time limit, and seek financial damages. Supporters of the measure hope that provision would survive the legal challenges that have doomed similar laws elsewhere..

"The Texas Heartbeat Act is novel in approach, allowing for citizens to hold abortionists accountable through private lawsuits. The bill does not punish women who obtain abortions," Texas Right to Life said in a statement.

But critics say that provision would allow abortion opponents to flood the courts with lawsuits to harass doctors, patients, nurses, domestic violence counsellors, a friend who drove a woman to a clinic, or even a parent who paid for a procedure.

And they argue that it would violate state constitutional requirements that civil lawsuits can be filed only by impacted parties. Under the bill, a person filing the lawsuit would not need any personal connection to the abortion in question.

The House version prevents a rapist, or someone who got a woman pregnant through incest, from filing a lawsuit over a late abortion.

The bill has been opposed by medical groups.

"Regardless of our personal beliefs about abortion, as licensed physicians in Texas, we implore you to not weaponize the judicial branch against us to make a political point," a group of 200 doctors wrote to House leadership on Monday.

A tearful Rep. Donna Howard, a Democrat, said it will force women into "dark corners" when seeking abortions.

"We do not want to return to a time when women had to hide in the shadows and risk their very lives with unsafe procedures," Howard said.

Texas law currently bans abortion after 20 weeks, with exceptions for a woman with a life-threatening medical condition or if the fetus has a severe abnormality.

Proponents of these so-called "heartbeat bills" are hoping for a legal challenge to eventually reach the U.S. Supreme Court, where they look for the conservative coalition assembled under President Donald Trump to end the constitutional right to abortion protected under the high court's landmark 1973 Roe v. Wade ruling.

Jim Vertuno, The Associated Press

ST. LOUIS — A review of the investigation that brought down former Missouri Gov. Eric Greitens three years ago uncovered evidence that the prosecutor in charge concealed evidence that could have helped Greitens, the head of the office that oversees lawyers’ professional conduct alleges.

Alan Pratzel, Missouri’s chief disciplinary counsel, contends in a court document obtained by the St. Louis Posts-Dispatch that there is probable cause to believe that St. Louis Circuit Attorney Kim Gardner concealed details about the Greitens investigation from her subordinates regarding notes taken during interviews with witnesses and that she failed to disclose favourable evidence to Greitens' lawyers.

The disciplinary case was under seal until Tuesday, after Gardner’s lawyers had a chance to respond to the allegations.

Gardner's lawyer, Michael Downey, said in a court filing that Gardner didn't hide her role in the investigation and that she produced all of the notes that were taken during witness interviews. He called the claims "another attempt by Ms. Gardner's political enemies — largely from outside St. Louis — to remove Ms. Gardner and thwart the systemic reforms she champions."

Gardner's office said in a statement that she complied with the law during the Greitens investigation.

"Despite several investigations attempting to uncover illegal wrongdoing by her office in this case, none has ever been found," it said. "We are confident that a full review of the facts will show that the Circuit Attorney has not violated the ethical standards of the State of Missouri."

The Missouri Supreme Court, which presides over Pratzel’s office, decides disciplinary cases involving lawyers. No hearing date has been set. The court could decide to take no action or punish Gardner with a reprimand, suspension or revocation of her law license.

Greitens had been governor for a little over a year when he was indicted in February 2018 on a charge of felony invasion of privacy that accused him of taking a compromising photo of a woman during an extramarital affair and threatening to use it as blackmail if she spoke of the relationship.

Gardner abruptly dismissed the case during jury selection that May when she was faced with having to testify about her involvement in the investigation. Gardner, a Democrat, later brokered Greitens' resignation in exchange for dropping an unrelated felony computer tampering charge against the Republican governor.

In July 2018, members of Greitens' defence team filed an ethics complaint alleging that Gardner conspired with her private investigator, William Don Tisaby, to lie in sworn testimony about the investigation, and that she solicited false testimony from him. The complaint also alleged that Gardner failed to turn over evidence to Greitens' defence team.

Tisaby was later indicted on multiple counts of perjury and evidence tampering. His criminal case is still pending.

Greitens announced in March that he will seek the Republican nomination for U.S. Senate in 2022.

The Associated Press