Capitol rioter who echoed sovereign citizen rhetoric sat 'with head in hands' after being found guilty

Pauline Bauer, a Capitol rioter who became known for deploying sovereign citizen-style rhetoric in her legal defense filings, was found guilty by a judge on Tuesday, just over two years after she broke into the Capitol building and demanded the hanging of then-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA).

CBS News' Scott MacFarlane reports that United States District Court Judge Trevor McFadden, who was overseeing Bauer's bench trial, found her guilty after rejecting claims that she "blacked out" amid the riots and thus did not bear full responsibility for her actions.

McFadden pointed to Bauer's calls for the hanging of Pelosi and other lawmakers as sufficient to have her deemed an "obvious and grave security risk" to elected officials at the Capitol.

According to MacFarlane, Bauer sat "with her head in her hands" after being found guilty, although McFadden did agree to let her free in the months leading up to her sentencing on the grounds that she had already served several months in prison after being held in pretrial detention.

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Bauer became notorious for sabotaging her own efforts to get out of pretrial detention over the past two years with her repeated courtroom outbursts and her highly unusual legal filings.

In July of 2021, for example, Bauer filed a motion to dismiss in which she described herself as "I, Me, Pauline Bauer the Living Soul, A Creation of God."

She then proceeded to demand that the court "Drop all Charges against my VESSEL - PAULINE BAUER and Dismiss the Case."

As justification for the dismissal, Bauer alleged unspecified "Inconsistencies with Due Process Protections Act and obligations not met under the Brady Rule."