Global Courant 2023-05-30 22:17:53
A Pennsylvania restaurant owner who yelled death threats at then-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi while storming of the US Capitol was sentenced on Tuesday to more than two years in prison.
Pauline Bauer was near Pelosi’s office suite on Jan. 6, 2021, when she yelled at police officers to bring out the California Democrat so the mob of Donald Trump supporters could hang her.
In January, U.S. District Judge Trevor McFadden convicted Bauer of riot-related charges after hearing testimony without a jury. The judge sentenced her to two years and three months in prison, giving her credit for the months she has already served in prison, court records show.
Prosecutors had recommended a prison sentence of six years and six months for Bauer, 55, of Kane, Pennsylvania.
Bauer was part of the mob that forced East Plaza police officers to retreat. After making her way to the Capitol, she accosted officers trying to secure the Rotunda, shoved one of them and yelled at police to “take them out or we’re coming in,” according to federal prosecutors.
‘They are criminals. They must hang,” she yelled. “Bring Nancy Pelosi here now. We want to hang (her). Take her out.”
Other rioters shouted threats at Pelosi as they roamed the Capitol.
“Bauer’s threat to hang Speaker Pelosi was real, menacing and endangered the Speaker of the House,” prosecutor James Peterson wrote in a lawsuit.
Bauer traveled from her home in northern Pennsylvania on Jan. 6 to attend then-President Donald Trump’s “Stop the Steal” rally in Washington. The day before, she had attended a “Stop the Steal” rally in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania.
She came to Washington with at least five other people charged with the Capitol riot, including co-defendant William Blauser, who pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor charge. Last year, McFadden ordered Blauser to pay a $500 fine but did not sentence him to prison or probation.
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McFadden convicted Bauer on all five charges in her charges, including a felony charge that she obstructed the Jan. 6 joint session of Congress that ratified President Joe Biden’s 2020 election victory.
Defense attorney Komron Jon Maknoon said Bauer never intended to interfere in the Electoral College ballot certification process. She “really regrets her past actions” and poses no threat to the public, her lawyer said.
“The international spotlight showing her at her worst has deeply affected her,” Maknoon wrote.
Prosecutors said Bauer lied during her trial testimony, gave a false statement before confronting police, and claimed she had no recollection of threatening Pelosi.
Bauer has used extremist rhetoric from “sovereign citizens” and filed “nonsense” court documents while defending herself, prosecutors said.
More than a year before the trial, McFadden ordered Bauer to serve several months in jail for violating the terms of her release. She had claimed that the court has no authority over her and told the judge that she does not want a “lawyer from the bank.”
During a 2021 interview, Bauer said her arrest on U.S. Capitol riot charges led to a mixed reaction from neighbors in Kane, a small town on the edge of the 517,000-acre Allegheny National Forest.
“Many people say they are proud of me for standing up for my rights,” she told The Associated Press.
Bauer said her restaurant, Bob’s Trading Post, was thriving before the COVID-19 pandemic. She became known in her hometown as an outspoken critic of lockdown measures costing her business.
More than 1,000 people have been charged with federal crimes for their conduct on January 6. More than 500 of them have been convicted, with more than half serving prison terms ranging from one week to 18 years.
