'Sovereign citizen' who stormed Capitol tells judge she only blew up in court because she was under a lot of stress: report

On Wednesday, NBC4 Washington's Scott MacFarlane reported that Pauline Bauer, a so-called "sovereign citizen" who was jailed ahead of trial for her involvement in the January 6 Capitol insurrection, is now seeking for an appeals court to release her from pre-trial detention.

Bauer, a pizzeria owner from Pennsylvania, is accused of shouting "Bring Nancy Pelosi out here now. We want to hang that f*cking b*tch. Bring her out," while forcing her way into the Capitol with the crowd. She was kept in prison after outbursts in court, proclaiming to the judge that the court has "no dominion over a living soul," and that "I have a right to my self-determination!" She has also delivered lengthy, typo-ridden manifestos to the court proclaiming she had a right to be in the Capitol, and has called searches of her home "illegal."

Now, she is taking a different strategy: telling the court that she was under stress when she did all those things.

"When Ms. Bauer appeared before the Court on September 17, she had been working multiple days in a row, putting in 14 to 16 hours days [sic] and was suffering from lack of sleep," said the filing. "Ms. Bauer has also been receiving ugly hate mail ... Counsel respectfully requests that the Court take these circumstances into consideration and release Ms. Bauer to return to her productive and generous activities."

The "Sovereign Citizens" are a loose-knit movement of far-right activists who believe that the U.S. government, and most of its laws, are illegitimate, and that they alone have the right to decide what laws, taxes, and other functions of civil society apply to them. According to the Southern Poverty Law Center, the movement has roots in a racist and anti-Semitic Christian Identity group that believed nonwhite people are non-human and county sheriffs are the highest-ranking legitimate government authority. Its adherents have been linked to terrorist acts.