A smiling MAGA rioter strolled out of a Texas courthouse yesterday after she uploaded a viral video from inside the Capitol bragging about breaking down Nancy Pelosi's door.
Jenny Cudd, a flower shop owner and former mayoral candidate, was arrested by the FBI on Wednesday and charged with entering a restricted building and disorderly conduct.
Despite facing up to a year behind bars if found guilty, Cudd smiled from ear-to-ear as she strode past reporters outside the Midland courthouse after the judge granted her bail.
Cudd went viral last week when she made a video from inside the Capitol, saying: 'We didn't knock down any statues, we didn't vandalize anything - but we did break down Nancy Pelosi's office door.'
Jenny Cudd, front, a flower shop owner and former Midland mayoral candidate, and Eliel Rosa, rear, leave the federal courthouse in Midland, Texas, Wednesday
Jenny Cudd, front, a flower shop owner and former Midland mayoral candidate, and Eliel Rosa, rear, leave the federal courthouse in Midland, Texas
Cudd smiles as a reporter asks her questions following her hearing in Midland, Rosa is seen walking behind
Cudd denies doing anything violent or damaging property.
She said that she didn't personally go into Pelosi's office or see the breaking down of the door, but was speaking in a collective sense about people at the Capitol.
Her attorney, Don Flanary, said that the misdemeanour charges reflected that.
'She's basically just been charged with being there,' he told CBS. 'She did not break into Nancy Pelosi's office. She didn't go anywhere inside or near it.'
He added: 'We're pretty confident that the cameras will show she was only in the public portions of the Capitol.'
Cudd was charged alongside fellow Midland resident Eliel Rosa, a former immigration policy staffer for local Republican candidate Jamie Berryhill.
Rosa faces the same misdemeanour charges as Cudd.
The pair were bailed by the U.S. Magistrate Judge Ronald Griffin with a judge in Washington D.C. overseeing the case against them.
Cudd stated that she planned to enter not guilty pleas when she appears back in court next week.
As of Tuesday, the FBI said it had charged more than 70 people for the riot on Capitol Hill and was continuing to track down more suspects.
Cudd last week boasted about how the 'patriots' had invaded the Capitol after attending Donald Trump's rally on the National Mall.
She was one of several political candidates who took part in the siege, along with former US House nominee Rick Saccone of Pennsylvania and recently-elected lawmaker Derrick Evans of West Virginia.
Cudd came last in a three-way mayoral race in Midland, Texas, in November 2019, and current mayor Patrick Payton said he was 'saddened' by her involvement in the mob.
'It saddens me. And that's just as far as I'm willing to comment on that. It saddens me,' he said.
Jenny Cudd, on the left of the picture wearing a Trump flag, was among the mob who invaded the Capitol on Wednesday - and boasted that she was 'proud' to have taken part in the intrusion egged on by the president
Cudd claims she had merely taken pictures in the Capitol rotunda and did not intrude into the House or Senate chambers or congressional offices.
Condemning the violence that shocked the world, she claimed she had merely wanted to protest with fellow Trump supporters in a 'show of solidarity'.
Cudd (pictured) came last in a three-way mayoral race in Midland, Texas, in November 2019, and current mayor Patrick Payton said he was 'saddened' by her involvement
But in her since-deleted Facebook video, she had spoken cheerfully about how 'we did break down Nancy Pelosi's office door'.
Speaking on Pennsylvania Avenue, she said she had listened to Trump's provocative speech near the White House before heading towards Congress.
'We start walking up to the Capitol, and we get the news that Pence betrayed us,' she said - after the vice president refused to submit to Trump's demands to try and throw out electoral votes that were legitimately cast for Joe Biden.
'When Pence betrayed us is when we decided to storm the Capitol,' she said. 'So we get to the Capitol and some of the patriots had already broken down all of the barricades.'
Describing what happened inside, she said: 'We didn't knock down any statues, we didn't vandalize anything - but we did break down Nancy Pelosi's office door.
'Somebody stole her gavel, and took a picture sitting in the chair, flipping off the camera... patriots got down on the floor and were sitting in the House members and the Senators' chairs.'
Cudd said the mob had stayed in the Capitol as long as we could until they started gassing us, and they started hitting patriots with batons'.
Repeatedly referring to the intruders as 'patriots', she said the MAGA mob was a 'bunch of red-blooded American patriots that actually give a s*** about our country and keeping it'.
In one of many striking images that shook the foundations of American democracy on Wednesday, the steps of the US Capitol were lit up by a police munition as rioting Trump supporters occupied the building
The protesters used flag poles and other objects to break doors and windows around the Capitol building
Members of Congress are seen running for cover as protesters attempted to enter the House Chamber
She later added: 'The government serves at the consent at the governed. Well the governed are p****d off, and the governed don't trust them.
'So yeah, I'm proud of everything that I was a part of today, and I'll be proud of everything that I'm a part of at the next one, and we'll see what happens at that.'
Cudd has since tried to distance herself from the violence, saying she left the rotunda after taking pictures for about 15 minutes.
A picture taken by a news agency showed her taking photos with her smartphone while fellow Trump supporters occupied the rotunda.
The siege has led to questions over how the mob got inside the Capitol so easily, prompting the resignation of the head of the US Capitol Police.
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