Capitol rioter Pauline Bauer, a McKean County restaurant owner who wanted to hang former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, is headed to federal prison for 27 months.
U.S. District Judge Trevor McFadden imposed that term Tuesday in Washington, D.C.
Bauer, 55, of Kane, will also be on probation for three years and will have to pay a $2,000 fine.
She’d been convicted at trial in January.
Bauer has repeatedly claimed to be a sovereign citizen who doesn’t have to answer to the government.
She was wrong about that.
She thought she deserved probation. Prosecutors said 78 months was more appropriate. The judge picked a sentence in between.
Bauer stormed the Capitol with the rest of the Donald Trump supporters, demanded that police bring out Pelosi to be hanged, shoved a cop and later showed contempt for the court process.
Assistant U.S. Attorney James Peterson said her conduct was the “epitome” of disrespect for the law.
She said she got “caught up in the crowd” but just wanted to go back to running her business, Bob’s Trading Post.
Peterson said she was an active participant in the rioting who helped escalate violence against a police officer identified as T.C.
He said she also lied over and over during her trial.
One of her claims was that she didn’t want Pelosi to be killed. But that was hard to square with a recording of her spewing, “Bring Nancy Pelosi out here now. We want to hang that f—— bitch. Bring her out.”
She was 30 feet from Pelosi’s office when she unleashed that demand, her face contorted in rage. Other rioters were hunting for Pelosi to murder her, Peterson said.
When a cop tried to push Bauer away, she shoved him and screamed at him, “F— you, you son of a bitch.”
On Facebook, she made her attitudes known to all. She repeated Trump’s lies, which he is still spouting, that the election was stolen. She also labeled Pelosi a “cowering bitch” for escaping the Trump rioters that day through a Capitol tunnel.
Bauer’s lawyer, Komron Jon Maknoon, argued that his client’s Jan. 6 actions were uncharacteristic. She’s normally a law-abiding type, according to him.
Despite her refusal to be respectful during prior court hearings, or even civil, he said she now has new-found appreciation for the law.
Bauer is one of some two dozen people from Western Pennsylvania who stormed the Capitol in support of Trump’s lies.
Overall, more than 1,000 people have been arrested from every state in the U.S., with many now in federal prison. The FBI is looking for others.
Torsten covers the courts for the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, but he's currently on strike. Reach him at jtorsteno@gmail.com.
