Woman identified as Pauline Bauer inside the Capitol Rotunda (via FBI).
The Pennsylvania pizzeria owner who was caught on video ordering police to “bring Nancy Pelosi out” to the crowd of Donald Trump supporters who stormed the Capitol on Jan. 6 has lost her bid to reverse a judge’s ruling that she be detained pending trial.
Pauline Bauer, 54, had asked the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit to overturn U.S. District Judge Trevor McFadden’s order from September revoking her pretrial release.
During a contentious hearing that featured a Biblical back-and-forth between defendant and judge, McFadden told Bauer that he was reluctant to send her back into custody and acknowledged that she wasn’t a danger to society, but he had doubts about her willingness to comply with conditions of her release.
“I am not a person,” Bauer insisted during one court appearance while claiming to have diplomatic immunity in appearing as a self-described “friend of the court.”
McFadden, a Donald Trump appointee, denied Bauer’s subsequent requests to reconsider his detention order, so she took her case to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia.
In her appellate brief, Bauer repeatedly made the argument that she was neither a flight risk nor a danger to the community, although those were not he exact reasons for McFadden’s detention order.
Bauer also said that terms of her release weren’t specific enough for her to follow, or to understand the consequences.
“The Order Setting Conditions of Release does not specify that Ms. Bauer was required to make weekly telephone calls or to allow a home visit,” she argued. “It merely stated that Ms. Bauer was required to ‘submit to supervision by and report for supervision to the Western District of Pennsylvania, as directed.’ The term ‘submit to supervision’ is not sufficiently clear and specific to serve as a guide to Ms. Bauer that she was required to call Pretrial Services weekly or that she was required to submit to a home inspection and that failure to do so would subject her to pretrial detention.”
Bauer’s brief recalled her earlier assertions that she is not under the jurisdiction of the court, but rather she is “here by special appearance.”
Bauer also argued that the federal corruption charge against her has never previously been used “to prosecute persons engaged in political demonstrations, whose conduct may have delayed or even resulted in the suspension of congressional or other governmental proceedings.” Bauer added that multiple Jan. 6 defendants charged under the federal corruption statute have moved to dismiss the charge, although she did not mention that six judges so far have denied these attempts.
Bauer’s appeal was before Circuit Judges Robert Wilkins, a Barack Obama appointee; Neomi Rao, a Trump appointee; and Ketanji Brown Jackson, a Joe Biden appointee.
“Appellant’s arguments against detention are unavailing,” the three-judge panel said in Monday’s judgment. “Even assuming appellant’s challenges are timely and therefore properly before the court, we discern no error given appellant’s repeated insistence that the district court lacked jurisdiction over her and the thorough explanation of the conditions provided by both the district court and the magistrate judge.”
The judges also dismissed Bauer’s argument that McFadden erred in ordering her detention under the federal detention statute, saying that she couldn’t show “plain error” because neither the circuit court nor the U.S. Supreme Court had ruled on that specific issue.
Finally, the panel dismissed Bauer’s attempt to appeal a district court’s order deferring consideration of her second motion for reconsideration. The judges noted that Bauer didn’t assert any basis for the court’s jurisdiction to review the order, and didn’t mention it in her appellate brief.
“In any event, the order is not appealable under [federal direct appeal statutes], nor is it appealable under the collateral-order doctrine,” the judges added.
On Jan. 6, Bauer was seen on body-worn camera footage from D.C. Metro Police as rioters overtook the Capitol building in order to stop Congress from certifying the results of Biden’s win in the 2020 presidential race.
“Bring them out,” Bauer told police, according to prosecutors. “We want them out here…You bring them out or we’re coming in. Bring them out now. They’re criminals. They need to hang. Bring her out. Bring Nancy Pelosi out here now. We want to hang that fucking bitch. Bring her out. We’re coming in if you don’t bring her out. What are you trying to protect a fucking Nazi. Is that what you’re protecting?”
Bauer has been no less colorful in her court hearings.
“I am here by special divine appearance, a living soul,” Bauer had said in a court appearance via Zoom in June, according to a Daily Beast report. She did not want an attorney, she said, and insisted that she does not “stand under the law. Under Genesis 1, God gave man dominion over the law.”
Bauer currently has a motion to dismiss pending before McFadden. It’s set to be heard on Feb. 18.
Read the appellate court’s order, below.
[Image via FBI]
