A massage therapist from Stockbridge is the latest Georgian to be arrested in the long-running investigation into the Jan. 6, 2021, U.S Capitol riot.
Tonya Elizabeth Webb described herself on her business website as a having “worn a lot of different hats in my life,” moving from a “total hippie” to the corporate world as a marketing professional to owning her own massage business out of her Henry County home. But according to an FBI affidavit, it was the black Trump hat she wore while inside the Capitol with the mob that helped identify her as she moved through the building, entering and exiting twice.
Webb was arrested Aug. 25 in Huntsville, Ala., and charged with entering a restricted area, two counts of disorderly conduct, and one count of illegally demonstrating inside the Capitol, all misdemeanors.
According to court documents, Webb spent a total of about 30 minutes inside the building, walking through the Senate wing and into the Capitol Crypt taking video with her mobile phone. Multiple photos included in court records show a woman identified as Webb surrounded by other rioters in multiple places inside and outside the building.
One photo appears to show Webb motioning through a window from inside the Capitol to the mob outside. A still from a livestream appears to show Webb inside the Capitol with her phone while rioters climb through a broken window.
Credit: U.S. Department of Justice
Credit: U.S. Department of Justice
Although a warrant for her arrest was not issued until last month, the FBI had been investigating Webb’s alleged participation in the riot at least since December 2021 when a neighbor positively identified her from a photo taken on Jan. 6. Court records do not reflect why it took another 20 months to charge her.
In a text message reply to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution Thursday, Webb declined to speak directly to the charges.
“It’s been my personal observation that nobody involved has been treated with any kind of fairness or objectivity,” she wrote. “Therefore, I am not inclined to speak about it at this time.”
It appears Webb may have recently relocated to Alabama. Her Jodeco Road home is listed for sale, her massage business has been dissolved and the federal public defender assigned to her case is in Birmingham.
Webb is the 26th person with Georgia ties to be charged in the Jan. 6 investigation. In the more than two and a half years since the riot, authorities have charged almost 1,150 people with various crimes relating to the unrest that followed former President Donald Trump’s Stop the Steal rally that day.
Her misdemeanor charges are common to defendants alleged to have entered the Capitol but not to have committed more serious crime that day, such as fighting with police or conspiring to obstruct Congress.
