While we could use a lot of words to describe those who stormed the U.S. Capitol on January 6, one that keeps coming to mind, even when stronger words feel more appropriate, is “audacious.”
By that, I don’t just mean that the rioters involved thought they could overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election and undermine American democracy. But, as multiple Twitter users have put it , “They honestly thought they’d be able break into the US capitol and fly home to go to work the next day.”
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The more stories we hear about how surprised those who took part in the chaos are to be arrested for their actions, the harder it is not to wonder what kind of consequence-free life could possibly convince someone that they could get away with an attempted insurrection.
However, the pre-trial treatment that one such rioter is apparently receiving seems to suggest that not everyone gets the same consequences in this world.
As we’ve seen in the cases of multiple individuals who stormed the Capitol, Jenny Louise Cudd of Midland, Texas, had enough pride in her actions to tell the world about them.
In a video that has since vanished from Facebook, along with the rest of her account, Cudd chuckles and tells her viewers, “We did break down Nancy Pelosi’s office door and somebody stole her gavel.”
According to USA Today , this video also saw her state, “I was here today on Jan. 6th when the new revolution started at the Capitol.”
But while she apparently saw nothing wrong with her involvement in the Capitol incident, the same can’t be said for authorities and her business partners.
In addition to her arrests for unlawfully entering a restricted building and disorderly conduct — as outlined by CBS7 — we can see that wedding preparation app The Knot removed her floral business from their platform.
USA Today also noted that the business has since attracted over 500 negative Google reviews from across the country.
After receiving her charges on January 13, a U.S. magistrate judge in Midland released her on a bond.
As CBS7 reported, the U.S. Attorney’s Office then briefed her on the terms of her release in January, which included staying away from Washington D.C. unless it’s for a reason relevant to her case, verifying her address every week with pre-trial services, informing the court of any travel outside of Midland within the U.S., and not traveling outside the nation without the approval of the court.
But as we can see from this request through her attorney, she nonetheless asked the court for permission to go on a four-day “work-related bonding retreat” with her employees and their partners to Mexico’s Riviera Maya coastline.
But while we might expect that missing out on a vacation like that simply comes as the price of trying to storm the Capitol, that is apparently not the case for Cudd.
According to USA Today , after her pre-trial service officer had no objections to her travel plans and prosecutors took “no position” on her request, the magistrate judge approved it and ordered an amendment to Cudd’s pre-trial restrictions to allow her to go on her trip.
Aside from the fact that she has no prior criminal history, it’s unclear what about her case compelled the judge to grant this request.
After all, nothing about her statements in the weeks since the riot indicate any remorse for her participation in it.
As NewsWest9 reported , she went as far as to say, “I did not break any laws, I went inside the capitol completely legally and I did not do anything to hurt anybody or destroy any property.”
Even taking aside the fact that unauthorized entry of the U.S. Capitol is not legal, this seems to contradict her earlier statements in which she included herself in the group that broke down Nancy Pelosi’s door.
Instead, it appears that she’s seeking to blame the consequences she has received thus far on “cancel culture.”
As she put it, “So what they’re trying to do is cancel me because I stood up for what I believe in and I can tell you this it’s – and it’s what I’ve told everybody – I would do it again in a heartbeat.”
