A U.S. district court judge and federal prosecutor were flummoxed Wednesday when a defense attorney who recently took over a Capitol riot defense alleged her client’s signature was forged on a plea agreement even though the defendant had attested at his plea hearing that the signature was his own.

Carolyn Stewart, a defense attorney based in Florida representing Paul Hodgkins, the first felony defendant to be sentenced in the Jan. 6 riots, said she developed suspicions about the signature while poring over documents after taking over the case last month. She decided to show it to a handwriting expert.