Audrey Ann Southard-Rumsey
Audrey Southard-Rumsey is a talented singer of opera and popular music who once performed at Carnegie Hall. She loved teaching voice out of her home in Spring Hill, Florida. A passionate artist with a strong love of country, Audrey was shocked by the election of November 2020. Like millions of other Americans watching the TV news coverage, the suddenly shifting results and irregularities of the election outraged her. Like millions of other Americans, she took to social media to vent her anger and frustration, working with fellow supporters of then-President Trump on a declaration calling for the abolition of the Democratic Party. She wrote vitriolic posts about the people who contributed to the fraudulent election such as, “HANG the TRAITORS!!!”
She never imagined that these passionate statements would be turned against her later by federal prosecutors, helping to put her in prison for 6 years.
After hearing about President Trump’s “Stop the Steal” rally scheduled for January 6th, a burning desire to speak up for her country’s election integrity drove Audrey to travel with friends to Washington, D.C. to participate in the protest.
With over 200,000 Americans crowding The Ellipse where then-President Donald Trump was speaking, Audrey and her friends couldn’t get close enough; so they headed toward the Capitol building.
By the time she and her friends arrived at Capitol Hill, earlier crowds of protestors had already removed several lines of barriers surrounding the area – including temporary fences dotted with “AREA CLOSED” signs. Like most of the tens of thousands of protestors on January 6th, Audrey saw no indication that “the People’s House” was closed to the public that day.
By the time she reached the Capitol building itself, she was shocked to witness a police blockade, officers throwing tear gas and other “less-lethal” grenades into the crowd, beating them back with batons, and dangerously firing rubber bullets at citizens from a high vantage point. All of this was in violation of lawful police policy for crowd control.
Around noon, Audrey uploaded to Facebook photos of herself at the east plaza, writing, “DC taking it back!!” She broadcasted live video on Twitter, stating, “standing in front of the capitol building, ready to take it. As soon as we get enough people up here. Storm the capitol building, it’s gonna be fun.”
Around 2 p.m., Audrey was one of hundreds who pushed through the police barricades at the east front and advanced, forcing officers to retreat. She entered the Capitol building through the East Rotunda doors when another protestor opened them from the inside.
Outside the entrance to the House floor, Audrey approached a group of Capitol Police, confronting a Sergeant who blocked her way. She was captured on video yelling, “Tell Pelosi we are coming for that b____,” and “There’s a hundred thousand of us, what’s it going to be?”
At some point, Audrey obtained a flagpole. In a struggle with the sergeant over the pole, the sergeant fell backward into the first set of doors leading to the House floor — the doors flew open, and the sergeant struck the back of his head on the base of a marble statue. At the door to the House Chamber, Audrey shouted, “we’re coming for you!”
After further altercations with police officers, Audrey and other protestors were expelled from the Capitol building. Regrouping with her friends, Audrey returned to her life teaching music in Florida. She had no idea that federal prosecutors were quickly building a case against her. Turning her own social media posts — along with videos and photos taken of her at the Capitol – against her, the FBI and Department of Justice designated Audrey a “domestic terrorist” and tracked down her location.
On June 2, 2021, nearly six months after she had entered the Capitol building, Audrey was put in handcuffs and transported to a federal court in Tampa. Federal prosecutors charged her with 7 felony charges, including three counts of assaulting, resisting, or impeding officers, three counts of civil disorder, and one count of obstruction of an official proceeding.
The felony “obstruction” count is typical of how the Biden Department of Justice twists the Sarbanes-Oxley Act against J6ers who entered the Capitol — misusing its “obstruction of an official proceeding” provision, which was originally meant to punish crimes such as the shredding of documents during a financial crime investigation, to elevate what might otherwise be misdemeanors into a felony. They then stack other charges on top to maximize the hard time they can give to J6ers. Such abuse of the Act is being challenged in the Supreme Court.
Audrey appeared before a U.S. District Court Judge who released her on a $50,000 bond. Returning home to Spring Hill, the negative backlash from the press coverage of her arrest hit her hard. Almost nobody wanted to hire her anymore.
Over a year later, in January of 2023, Audrey was transported to Washington, D.C. for a bench trial before Obama-appointed U.S. District Judge Amit P. Mehta. During the trial, federal prosecutors presented her social media statements as evidence that she was a remorseless domestic terrorist.
Judge Mehta found her guilty of all 7 felony charges.
On the date of her sentencing hearing in July of 2023, Audrey’s statement was true to her passionate character.
“I have grievances,” she told Judge Mehta, “since they don’t listen to us at the polling place. They don’t listen to us little people in the regular world.” She concluded by telling Mehta, “My whole dream of my life has been taken because people have different politics than mine… When you decide to throw me in prison for doing my duty, think of what I now have to give up.”
Upset by her remarks, the judge sentenced Audrey to 6 years in prison after castigating her as a “one-person wrecking crew” and adding a “terrorism enhancement” to her sentence. In addition to the 6 years, Judge Mehta ordered 3 years of supervised release, plus fines of $2,000.
At age 55, Audrey is now living in Alabama, behind razor wire inside a women’s federal prison. Her release date is October 21, 2028.
You can contribute to Audrey’s meal and other commissary expenses via this link, using her prisoner ID number (#48139-509):
https://www.bop.gov/inmates/communications.jsp#money
You can also purchase reading material for Audrey using this gift registry link:
https://www.amazon.com/registries/gl/guest-view/28O5N323FAHFV?ref=gr_search_page_result
Please send messages of encouragement by mailing letters or cards to:
Audrey Southard-Rumsey, #48139-509
FCI Aliceville, Federal Correctional Institution
P.O. Box 4000
Aliceville, AL 35442
