In the three years since the Jan. 6 Capitol riot, more than 1,300 participants have been charged with crimes. But outside a few of the flashiest and most memorable characters from the day, most individual prosecutions have passed with little public note. Last Monday, however, the news of one arrest was met with more outrage: that of Isabella Maria DeLuca, a 24-year-old conservative influencer.

According to prosecutors, on Jan. 6, 2021, DeLuca—who was arrested on Friday—entered a set of conference rooms inside the Capitol building by climbing through a broken window. She then climbed back out and was one of several people who passed a table from a Senate terrace room to rioters outside the building. The FBI testified that rioters later used the table to attack Capitol Police.

Around 3 p.m. that day, she tweeted, “Fight back or let politicians steal an election? Fight back!” Later, according to the arrest warrant, she would express her hopes that Trump would enact martial law.

After the news of her charges broke, DeLuca posted that she was “facing the unwarranted targeting and persecution by the DOJ and FBI at the direction of the Biden Administration, like most J6ers.” She added, “This experience for me, has only served to shed light on the challenges conservative Americans, Christians, and Trump supporters face daily.”

Not long afterward, her defenders settled on a particular argument. “Just so everyone knows the rules,” one person posted, “touching a table near a Capitol window is a criminal offense because someone may later use the table in a crime.” Another: “So now you can be arrested and charged for ‘TOUCHING A TABLE.’ ” And another: “I guess ‘touching a table’ is a threat to democracy. This is asinine.”

Her crime was not, of course, “touching a table.” DeLuca was charged with theft of government property, disorderly conduct, and entering a restricted area. Video from that day shows her helping to remove the table from inside the Capitol.

But that didn’t stop people from arguing that she was a victim of political persecution. Some on social media claimed that the Biden administration had gone after DeLuca specifically to send a message because of her social media presence; she has more than 343,000 followers on X. (DeLuca also, in her social media, highlighted that she was being attacked while “illegals” were coming into the country and claimed that more-serious criminals were escaping justice. “I wish the seven agents that came to arrest me were instead searching for missing children and arresting child sex traffickers,” she posted. “Apparently, that’s asking for too much.”)

The narrative took hold. Elon Musk, responding to a post from the right-wing influencer Ian Miles Cheong, replied on X that “the Jan 6 prosecutions have gone too far.” DeLuca’s GiveSendGo (a crowdfunding platform favored by conservatives) has now raised $19,000 for her legal defense, boosted by calls for conservatives to defend........

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