Capitol rioter who assaulted police with flagpole at Jan. 6 insurrection is sentenced to 6 years
(The Hill) – A woman who was charged for attacking Capitol Police officers with a flagpole during the Jan. 6, 2021, riot on the Capitol was sentenced to six years in prison on Friday.
Audrey Ann Southard-Rumsey amplified calls for revolution and violence on social media before the insurrection, according to federal investigators, including writing posts demanding to “hang the traitors.” She was also captured on video threatening then-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), who was inside the Capitol Building.
“Tell Pelosi we are coming for that b—-,” she yelled at multiple U.S. Capitol Police officers, according to a Department of Justice news release. “There’s a hundred thousand of us, what’s it going to be?”
Prosecutors called Southard-Rumsey a “principal agitator” during the insurrection, claiming that she went on a “violent rampage” with the flagpole against police officers. She was one of the rioters who led the mob towards the House chambers, prosecutors claimed.
During the insurrection, she posted a Facebook video of herself in front of the Capitol.
“Standing in front of the capitol building, ready to take it,” she said in the video. “As soon as we get enough people up here. Storm the capitol building, it’s gonna be fun.”
At her sentencing on Friday, Southard-Rumsey was expected to read a written statement taking responsibility for her actions. Instead, she threw the statement aside and gave a list of grievances, including blaming Antifa for the violence of the insurrection, according to CBS reports from the courtroom.
“I have grievances, since they don’t listen to us at the polling place,” she said. “They don’t listen to us little people in the regular world.”
The defendant later addressed the judge, the reports state.
“When you decide to throw me in prison for doing my duty … think of what I now have to give up,” she said.
Federal prosecutors originally requested a six-year sentence, considering Southard-Rumsey’s declaration of responsibility. However, after giving her grievances, prosecutors rescinded that recommendation, upping their recommended sentence to about 10 years in prison, according to the reports.
Judge Amit Mehta sentenced Southard-Ramsey to the government’s original recommendation of six years in prison, with three additional years of supervised release and a $2,000 fine.
