A Texan florist who boasted about breaking down Nancy Pelosi's door during the Capitol riots has asked a judge for permission to travel to a Mexican beach resort for a 'work-related bonding retreat'.
Jenny Cudd, who ran for mayor of Midland, was arrested on January 13 on charges of entering a restricted building and disorderly conduct, and was freed on bail.
Under the terms of her bail she is not able to travel outside the area, but on February 1 she asked the judge for permission to fly to Mexico for the staff vacation.
'Prior to the alleged offense at issue, Ms Cudd planned and prepaid for a weekend retreat with her employees,' her attorneys stated in their court filing.
Jenny Cudd, on the left of the picture wearing a Trump flag, was among the mob on January 6
Cudd is pictured leaving the federal courthouse in Midland, Texas on January 13
Cudd owns Becky's Flowers in Midland, and said on Facebook that she employs nine people
Cudd hoped to travel to the Riviera Maya from February 18-21.
'This is a work-related bonding retreat for employees and their spouses,' they explained.
Cudd owns Becky's Flowers in Midland.
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
With her business suffering during the pandemic, she received an Economic Injury Disaster Loan of $150,000, The Midland Reporter-Telegram said, and a $41,000 PPP loan.
'Considering the massive amount of taxes I pay and the fact that my business qualified for it and I applied, I viewed the PPP as getting some of my money back which paid the nine people whom I employ for a couple months,' she explained on Facebook.
Cudd is also a cannabis entrepreneur, with interests in two Oklahoma-based farms.
At the moment Cudd is required to check in once a week with the court and verify her address.
She is required to notify the court of the travel outside of Texas within the continental United States, and are not allowed to travel outside of the continental U.S. without written approval.
The next meeting will be a preliminary hearing on February 4, where the two will appear virtually before Magistrate Judge Robin M. Meriweather, sitting in Washington DC, where the charges were filed.
Cudd is facing up to a year behind bars or a $100,000 fine if found guilty.
Her Mexican 'work bonding trip' is not the only request from rioters that has raised eyebrows.
Jacob Chansley, also known as Jake Angeli or the 'QAnon Shaman', refused to eat food that wasn't organic in jail after being arrested. A judge agreed that he should be served organic food.
Cudd went viral 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.'
She has since insisted that by 'we' she meant everyone inside the Capitol, rather than her personally. She 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 misdemeanor 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 misdemeanor charges as Cudd.
Cudd 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.
Cudd is one of dozens arrested so far for their participation in the January 6 insurrection
The mob overran the Capitol Police shortly after Trump urged them to 'fight' on his behalf
A large crowd stormed the Capitol as terrified politicians ran for safety
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'.
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, referring to how 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'.
She 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.
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