Chaya Raichik appears to have trespassed at the Capitol
Newly-released analysis of footage appears to show Chaya Raichik, the woman behind the LibsOfTikTok account, trespassing on restricted grounds of the U.S. Capitol on January 6th, 2021.
Today Chaya Raichik, a professional bigot whose anti-LGTBQ posts have been blamed for threats on children's hospitals, revealed her face for the first time in an interview with Tucker Carlson, in which she called the LGBTQ community a "cult".
Raichik claimed to have been present at the Jan 6th Capitol riot in now-deleted Tweets. One of the tweets appears to show footage filmed from the northwest lawn of the Capitol. The full video is not available in the Internet Archive.
My analysis of video footage leads me to believe that Chaya Raichik was not merely present near the Capitol on January 6th, but that she trespassed on restricted Capitol grounds that day. In the rest of this article, I'll walk you through the evidence I used to draw my conclusion, so that you form your own opinion.
The Evidence
Chaya Raichik's interview today on the Tucker Carlson show provided us with the first clear, confirmed images of her face. In the interview, you can see that Raichik wears a distinctive ring on the 4th finger of her right hand.
A photograph of the Trump rally at the Ellipse in D.C. on January 6th shows who I believe to be Chaya Raichik standing at a fence, wearing the same distinctive ring on the 4th finger of her right hand.
Note also the following details in this photo from the Ellipse (you may need to zoom in):
Dark coat
Silver-gray iPhone with the clear plastic case
Black purse strap with white stitching and buckle
Red MAGA hat with a flag visible on the left side
Black hair tie or wrist band on right wrist
You can see the same woman, who I believe to be Chaya Raichik, with the same outfit and details, in this TikTok video by user @huebs22c. This video was filmed on the steps of the NW plaza of the Capitol.
The full TikTok video is only 24 seconds long, with other frames showing clearly where on Capitol grounds the video was filmed. This video was filmed on or near the steps leading from the NW Plaza to the Lower West Plaza of the Capitol. You can see the woman holding an iPhone with a clear plastic case and a white battery charging cable plugged in.
The same woman appears in GoPro footage released by the government as "Exhibit 4" in the federal criminal trial of Ronald Sandlin, who was recently sentenced to 63 months in prison for his role in the Jan 6th Capitol attack. The woman appears at roughly the 1:49 mark of the GoPro footage, the full version of which is over 10 minutes long. (Sandlin himself can be seen in the orange jacket on the right side.)
In another video still from the same GoPro footage, you can see the woman is holding the same iPhone with the clear plastic case and a white charging cable plugged in.
In another photo published on January 10th, 2021 by Citizen Media News, you can see a wide shot of the crowd at the Northwest Plaza of the Capitol. I've drawn a green circle around a barely-visible woman who I also believe to be Chaya Raichik, with the similar hat, haircut with the ears poking out, and white phone cable.
Here is a zoomed-in cropped version, showing the woman I've circled in green. I include this wide shot because it clearly shows the location of these people on Capitol grounds.
Restricted Grounds
The Ronald Sandlin evidence footage showing the same woman with the Capitol dome in the background was filmed at the northwest side of the Capitol lawn. The TikTok video shows the woman closer to the Capitol, near the steps leading from the NW Plaza to the Lower West Plaza.
The wide-angle image of the crowd shows the same woman (circled in green in the above photo) standing on the steps between the Lower West Plaza and the NW Plaza (see red arrow in the Capitol map below). This is well within the restricted area of the Capitol.
The entire area outlined in red is referred to in court filings by federal prosecutors as "Restricted Grounds". For example, in this filing in the criminal trial of Capitol rioters Jason Owens and Grady Owens, prosecutors write:
The exterior plaza of the U.S. Capitol was also closed to members of the public. Below picture indicates all area within the red lines designated as a secure area with no public access as previously referenced in the “Area Closed By order of the United States Capitol Police Board.”
The red area outlined in the map below is roughly the same red area from the map included above, but with the map flipped 90 degrees.
Conclusion
Based on the video and photographic evidence presented in this article, I believe that Chaya Raichik trespassed on restricted grounds at the U.S. Capitol on January 6th.
As of this writing, federal prosecutors have not charged anyone merely for being on restricted grounds outside the Capitol on January 6th, unless those individuals also engaged in other overt criminal acts like attacking police or entering the Capitol building itself.
I have not seen any evidence suggesting that the woman who I believe to be Chaya Raichik engaged in any violent or destructive acts that day, besides being present on restricted Capitol grounds.