Jenny Cudd, 36, of Texas, one of the rioters who participated in last week’s attack on the U.S. Capitol complex, has been arrested by federal authorities for her role in the violent siege.“
We are charging the capital [sic],” Cudd posted on Facebook at about 1:30 p.m. Wednesday.
Cudd said in a broadcast later in the day that the charging of the U.S. Capitol followed news that Vice President Mike Pence “betrayed us” by “not being willing to exercise” his power.
“When Pence betrayed us is when we decided to storm the Capitol,” Cudd said afterward.
About an hour earlier, a live video showed Cudd and fellow Midlander Eliel Rosa [also arrested] walking from the White House to the Capitol following President Donald Trump’s speech to the protesters.
Cudd said they were about 3 miles from the Capitol at the time of the video and they were meeting the Proud Boys there.
She said in the video there were “lots of armed patriots” among those marching and she was wearing a bulletproof sweatshirt.
Cudd said in the live Facebook video that she and Rosa were aware violence had broken out at the Capitol as they marched toward the building.
“This time it’s us,” she said. “This time it’s the pissed off patriots.”
“I don’t know if you have heard about the shot that rang out throughout the world, but that was it and I am not ******* joking around,” Cudd said during her broadcast afterward.
“One of our own got shot at the Capitol, and the Patriots are furious.”
Photos and videos of the following riot showed crowds swarming the Capitol entrance, while a smaller group breached the complex itself.
Cudd unlawfully entered the Capitol alongside others associated with that group, and acknowledged her participation in a Facebook live video that garnered millions of views shortly thereafter. She recalled breaking into House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s office with a smile.
“We did break down 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,” Cudd said. “Patriots got down on the floor and were sitting in the House members and the senators’ chairs.”
Weary from the long day and tear gas and batons she said were used on her and others at the Capitol, Cudd talked on her livened about being part of the “3 percent” willing to fight for her country. She also offered choice words for the Republican Party.
Twitter users urged the FBI to take action against Cudd in numerous posts shared to the social platform throughout the past week. Most referenced the Trump supporter’s unnerving sense of pride as she recounted events that took place at the Capitol in a video that rapidly went viral online.
“I’m proud of everything that I was part of today and I’ll be proud of everything that I’ll be a part of at the next one, and we’ll see what happens at that,” she said of the riot. “I hope you will share this video because we know that…mainstream media isn’t going to cover it.”
Cudd told KOSA that she would “do it again, and I’d have a gas mask next time,” during a subsequent interview with the outlet.
She later backed away from those statements, saying that she was referring to the group as a whole. She claimed she didn’t vandalize anything in the building.
“Do I think that it was wrong for us to go to the Capitol? Absolutely not. Do I think that it was wrong for me to go through an open door and get inside of the Capitol? No I don’t. I didn’t break any laws, I didn’t do anything unlawful, and I think that’s probably why the FBI and the law enforcement have not contacted me,” said Cudd in an interview with CBS7.
In an interview with the Reporter-Telegram last week, Cudd also denied doing anything unlawful during the riots at the Capitol. She said that, unbeknownst to her, individuals with Antifa broke through barriers and assaulted police officers before she arrived.
Cudd is the owner of Becky’s Flower, a flower store in west Midland, and she also created CYAFlowers.com, an online software platform that lets customers enter special dates – such as birthdays, anniversaries, Valentine’s Day and Mother’s Day.
She previously told the Reporter-Telegram her plan with the concept was to collect data on how customers use the platform and then sell licenses for floral shops nationwide, “so we have partners across the country.”
Cudd Enterprises – also doing business as CYA Flowers, an entity owned by Jenny Cudd — was one of the four winners of the 2017 Midland Development Corp. Small Business Development Center at University of Texas Permian Basin to administer the Midland Entrepreneurial Challenge. Her business received $63,000 from the SBDC and UTPB.
Cudd became more of a household name in Midland when she ran for mayor in November 2019. Her campaign included the slogan “Midland deserves better.” She was the outsider candidate who believed that city government had been ineffective at dealing with growth issues in Midland.
Cudd ran against Patrick Payton and Jerry Morales for mayor. She picked up 15.6 percent of the vote.
In 2019, Cudd told the Reporter-Telegram that she owned a percentage in a “consulting company that works with medical marijuana growing facilities in the state of Oklahoma.”
Cudd said she owns “50 percent of Mad Hatter’s Tea House and 4 percent of Top Dollar Equity” and that equals “1.5 shares in the consulting companies.”
In July of 2020, she appeared in a marketing video, “Cannabis Investment Opportunity – Summit Boys presented by Jenny Cudd.” She said in the video that the Summit Boys are from Oklahoma.
In 2020, Cudd was active in protests in Midland and Odessa against business closures and potential mask mandates having to do with the COVID-19 pandemic.
She also organized counter-protests when picketers outside Pastor Bob Fu’s home accused him of being a spy for the Chinese government.
Cudd also stated on her “Jenny Louise” Facebook page that she received PPP funding to help pay her employees. An initial search of Small-Business-Forum.net shows Cudd Enterprises, which shows the same address as Becky’s Flowers, also received an Economic Injury Disaster Loan of $150,000.
Cudd Enterprises LLC. also was awarded a $41,000 PPP loan according the Small Business Administration.
She wrote the following about receiving money, “Considering the massive amount of taxes I pay and the fact that my business qualified for it and I applied, I viewed the PPP as getting some of my money back which paid the nine people whom I employ for a couple months.”