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A federal judge said on Friday that a florist from Texas who has been charged with taking part in the riot at the U.S. Capitol last month may travel to Mexico for what she had described as a “work-related bonding retreat.”
The judge, Trevor N. McFadden of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, granted the woman, Jenny Louise Cudd, permission to take the prepaid trip this month, saying she had no criminal history and there was no evidence she was a flight risk or a danger to others.
Judge McFadden also said that Ms. Cudd’s pretrial services officer and prosecutors had not objected to her request to travel. Ms. Cudd must provide her itinerary to her pretrial officer and follow any other instructions the officer gives her, the judge said.
Ms. Cudd, who was charged with violent entry and being in a restricted building or grounds, said in a court filing that she had “planned and prepaid” for the retreat with her employees in the Riviera Maya, south of Cancún, from Feb. 18 to Feb. 21.
A grand jury has indicted Ms. Cudd, of Midland Texas, on five counts, including disorderly conduct in a Capitol building and obstruction of an official proceeding, according to documents filed in federal court.
Ms. Cudd streamed a live video of herself inside the Capitol on Jan. 6, the F.B.I. said. In the video, Ms. Cudd said she had been watching President Donald J. Trump speak before she “charged the Capitol today with patriots.”
“Hell, yes, I am proud of my actions,” she said on the video.
In the video, she also said, “We did break down the Nancy Pelosi’s office door and somebody stole her gavel and took a picture sitting in the chair flipping off the camera and that was on Fox News.”
Ms. Cudd, wearing a “Women for Trump 2020” cap, later said in an interview with a television station that she would “do it again in a heartbeat.” She ran unsuccessfully for mayor of Midland in 2019.
Ms. Cudd has been allowed to remain free while she awaits trial, according to federal court records. A magistrate judge ordered that she stay away from Washington and said that any travel plans must be approved by the court, according to the conditions of her release.
In court documents, Ms. Cudd’s lawyers said that she had no criminal record, that she had complied with the conditions of her release and that a pretrial service officer assigned to her case had “no objection” to the travel request.
Pretrial service officers are assigned to defendants to make sure they do not commit a crime while they await trial and return to court when they are ordered to.
David Kent, a federal prosecutor assigned to Ms. Cudd’s case, has told her lawyers that “the government takes no position on Ms. Cudd’s request” to travel to Mexico, Ms. Cudd’s lawyers wrote in a court filing.
Two of Ms. Cudd’s initial lawyers in the case, Farheena Siddiqui and Marina Medvin, did not return requests for comment. Mr. Kent and the Department of Justice did not respond to messages this week.
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