Jessica Bustle
Source: Department of Justice
Before the riot, Jessica Bustle had written in a Facebook post, “We don’t win this thing sitting on the sidelines. Excited to stand for truth with my fellow patriots and freedom fighters in D.C. today.”
After the riot, Jessica wrote on Facebook: “We need a Revolution! We can accept an honest and fair election but this is NOT fair and patriots don’t want to see their country brought into communism and destroyed over a lie.”
Jessica also called then-Vice President Mike Pence a “traitor” and bragged “We stormed the Capitol” in another post.
The riot began after Trump urged supporters at a rally outside the White House to march to the Capitol, where Congress was meeting in a joint session to confirm the Electoral College victory of President Joe Biden.
Pence was presiding over the proceedings when hundreds of Trump backers stormed the Capitol complex and invaded the halls of Congress.
Data records from cell phones associated with the Bustles indicated they were in the Capitol Rotunda for about 20 minutes.
Supporters of US President Donald Trump protest in the US Capitol Rotunda on January 6, 2021, in Washington, DC.
Saul Loeb | AFP | Getty Images
Surveillance video from the inside of the Capitol showed the couple entering the building. Jessica Bustle is seen on that video holding up a sign that said, “VACCINE INJURY is the REAL PANDEMIC” on one side, and and “MANDATORY MEDICAL PROCEDURES have NO Place in a FREE Society,” according to court documents.
Joshua Bustle, who appeared to record his wife on a cell phone during their time in the Rotunda, “carried a similar sign,” according to court documents.
During the couple’s plea hearing on Monday, Jessica Bustle said, “I wanted to say I’m admitting [guilt] to the things that I said and that I’m sorry for saying them, but also that there were other things that were said in those posts that were kind, like ‘pray for America’ that weren’t included” in the court filings.
Trump for months has falsely claimed to have beaten Biden in the presidential election.