Two Pennsylvanians included in new round of arrests announced following US Capitol insurrection

“They’re criminals. They need to hang... Bring her out,” Pauline Bauer of Kane, McKean County, is heard shouting on body camera footage.

• By Carolyn Thompson/The Associated Press

(Buffalo, N.Y.) — A woman heard shouting at police to “Bring Nancy Pelosi out” to be hanged during the attack on the U.S. Capitol is among those charged in a new round of arrests announced Wednesday by federal officials.

“They’re criminals. They need to hang… Bring her out,” Pauline Bauer of Kane, McKean County, is heard shouting on body camera footage, according to a criminal complaint charging her with obstructing Congress and disorderly conduct.

In the series of complaints announced Wednesday, Bauer is charged with the most serious counts from among two Pennsylvania residents and five from upstate New York charged with being part of a mob of former President Donald Trump’s supporters who pushed past police officers and broke through windows and doors on Jan. 6.

Pennsylvania restaurant owner arrested in US Capitol riots

Court docs say Pauline Bauer had “brief skirmish” w/ police

And ……. Feds say a tipster alerted them Bauer had begun “Losing business because people were uncomfortable about her constant political rhetoric” pic.twitter.com/BJ5ykqmIA0

— Scott MacFarlane (@MacFarlaneNews) May 19, 2021

More than 400 people have been charged so far in the siege. At least 40 Pennsylvanians are among those charged. The second highest total of any state in the country, behind only Texas.

A witness told authorities Bauer’s husband recently revealed that his wife had entered the Capitol building but said she had not been violent, according to the complaint. The witness said Bauer’s increasingly political rhetoric over the past year had been driving business away from the restaurant Bauer runs with her husband.

Bauer, who could face up to 20 years in prison if convicted of obstruction, represented herself during an online court hearing from what was labeled as an FBI facility in Pittsburgh. Her hair had been dyed a lighter color than it appeared in pictures submitted as evidence in the charging documents.

Wearing a gray sweatshirt with the words “Old school patriot” screen-printed on the front alongside a graphic of a coiled snake, Bauer was contentious with the federal judge overseeing the initial appearance, repeating her desire to represent herself instead of answering his questions about whether she had had any legal training or education in the law.

William Blauser, Jr. of Ludlow, McKean County, also appeared on charges of illegally entering a restricted building and violent entry and disorderly conduct.

Both he and Bauer were released on bond.

In New York, John Juran of Williamsville, Traci Sunstrom of Amherst, Michael Sywak of Hamburg and his son William Sywak of Alden were arrested Wednesday on similar charges and scheduled to make initial appearances in federal court in Buffalo. Court documents did not indicate whether they had retained lawyers.

Daniel Warmus of Alden appeared before U.S. District Judge Michael Romer in Buffalo on Tuesday.

The FBI began investigating Warmus after receiving a Jan. 12 tip that, while at a dentist’s office, he described smoking marijuana inside the Capitol and refusing a police officer’s warning to leave. Warmus also played a video he had taken inside the Capitol, which an unidentified tipster heard but did not see, according to a criminal complaint.

“We’re not interested” in commenting, a woman who answered the phone at Warmus’ home on Wednesday said.

His attorney, Daniel Dubois, said Warmus looks forward to defending himself.

A complaint unsealed in Arizona on Tuesday charges Micajah Jackson of Arizona with entering a restricted building and violent entry and disorderly conduct. The complaint alleges Jackson appears in photographs walking with members of the far-right Proud Boys extremist group, but that he told investigators he is not affiliated.

Jackson’s attorney, Todd Romero, was in court and not immediately available to comment, according to his office.

The criminal complaints include numerous screenshots from video footage taken inside and outside the building. Most show the suspects walking among crowds of people through hallways, holding up cellphones.

Michael Sywak told investigators he and his son had gotten separated outside and that neither had entered the Capitol, but the two are seen on video linking arms inside the building and walking down a hallway, the criminal complaint said.

Warmus, wearing a sweatshirt with the phrase, “CNN is fake news” and a Trump 2020 baseball cap, also is seen in an outdoor photo holding a large black flag with an obscenity referring to antifa, the umbrella term for far-left-leaning militant groups that confront or resist neo-Nazis and white supremacists at demonstrations.

 

Associated Press writers Claudia Lauer in Philadelphia and Karen Matthews in New York City contributed to this report.

NPR’s Investigative and News Apps teams have published a database of everyone arrested so far in connection with the Capitol riot. This area of reporting is ongoing, and the database is being updated.

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