Background: FILE — Violent rioters loyal to President Donald Trump storm the Capitol in Washington on Jan. 6, 2021. (AP Photo/John Minchillo, File). Insets: Gina Bisignano (via FBI court filing).
The Beverly Hills beautician who yelled “You are not going to take away our Trumpy Bear” through a bullhorn as she allegedly led Donald Trump supporters in the violent riot at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6 has been violating the terms of her pretrial release for years, according to federal prosecutors who say she should be kept behind bars until her case goes to court.
Gina Bisignano, who runs an eyelash extension and skin care salon in the world-famous California enclave, shouted pro-Trump missives — including “This is 1776!” and “We will never let our country go to the globalists!” — before helping multiple rioters smash a glass window to the Capitol and then crawling through it to enter the building.
She pleaded guilty in August 2021 to multiple crimes, including obstruction of an official proceeding, and civil disorder, which carries a potential five-year prison sentence. She also pleaded guilty to a handful of misdemeanors and agreed to cooperate with the federal government’s investigation into the Jan. 6 Capitol attack, which sent lawmakers and staff fleeing the building or sheltering in place for hours shortly after beginning proceedings to certify President Joe Biden’s 2020 electoral win.
She later successfully moved to withdraw her guilty plea to the obstruction charge and currently has a trial date set for April 8. She will also be tried for destruction of government property. She has not been detained ahead of trial, but as prosecutors note, U.S. District Judge Carl Nichols set conditions on her pretrial release, including that she stay off social media — except for using Instagram “for the limited purpose of booking clients,” Nichols said — and not to communicate with anyone who was at the Capitol on Jan. 6.
Now, according to a weekend filing first spotted by Jan. 6 reporter Emptywheel on X, prosecutors want Nichols to hold Bisignano to account after what they describe as years of violations of the terms of her release.
The violation, prosecutors say, stems from her repeated use of social media.
“Bisignano’s extensive social media activity, spanning seemingly the entirety of her time on release — and occurring before and after admonitions by this Court — violates multiple conditions of release, including that she ‘avoid all contact, directly or indirectly, with any person who is or may be a victim or witness in the investigation or prosecution,’ that she have ‘[n]o access to social media,’ and that she have ‘[n]o communications with anyone who was at the event on January 6, 2021.””
The filing reminds Nichols, a Trump appointee, that he “has repeatedly warned her about continued violations” since at least August 2021.
“The one thing you absolutely should not be doing is deciding on your own . . . that there are certain parts of my order that you can disregard,” Nichols told Bisignano at the time.
Prosecutors say that this “is precisely what Bisignano has done.”
“Since being placed on pretrial supervision, it appears Bisignano has been in a near constant state of noncompliance through her open and frequent use of various social media channels to communicate with other January 6 defendants,” prosecutors say. These violations show “either a complete inability to follow the clear — and repeatedly expressed — conditions of her release, or an outright disdain for the Court’s authority.”
The defendant has repeatedly taken to social media to promote “lies and conspiracy theories about the riot she helped lead,” according to the filing — including setting up her own account on X, the social media platform previously known as Twitter.
“Bisignano has maintained an active presence on Twitter using an account that appears to have been created expressly for the purpose of discussing her involvement in the riot at the Capitol on January 6, 2021,” the filing says.
Gina Bisgnano Twitter profile (via FBI court filing).
“This account includes 588 posts and reflects it was created in February 2022 — meaning that the account was active at the same time the Court admonished Bisignano against using social media at the May 4, 2023, hearing,” the motion says. Prosecutors added that Bisignano has used Telegram to communicate with other Jan. 6 defendants and the accounts of other people to access Twitter and participate in Jan. 6-related discussions with thousands of listeners.
“Some of these activities were brought to the attention of the Court previously, but others were uncovered just recently,” the filing notes.”
On X, the “@ginabjan6” account appeared to mock a user’s post that noted she violated her release conditions.
“Oooooh what a threat,” she wrote. That same account also acknowledged a post that said Bisignano was “on a Twitter spaces” right now and “trying to attend that stupid ‘vigil’ at the DC jail.”
Bisignano has claimed that this account was set up by a friend — a claim that prosecutors say “strains credulity.”
“The account is in Bisignano’s name and includes selfie photographs of Bisignano, including a photograph from her February 2023 trip to Washington, D.C. and a video in which she speaks directly to the camera in an interview,” the filing says. “Likewise, the account repeatedly uses the first person to discuss personal matters[.]”
Gina Bisignano social media activity (via FBI court filing).
“None of the posts referenced above have any obvious relation to Bisignano’s business interests as a salon worker,” the brief notes.
In any case, Bisignano’s behavior still undermines the court’s order, the filing says.
“But even if Bisignano’s claim was correct, and she was having a friend pose as her on Twitter as an end-run around her conditions of release, such a scheme would hardly be to her credit,” prosecutors argue. “Indeed, it would serve only to further underscore Bisignano’s understanding and knowing disregard of the Court’s clear and repeated orders.”
“Similarly, that Bisignano joined a Twitter space through the phone of another individual is further evidence that Bisignano knows well that what she is doing is a violation, but that she is nonetheless making efforts to conceal it from the Court,” prosecutors say. “It also suggests that the violations the United States has been able to report in this filing may well be only the tip of the iceberg of Bisignano’s violative conduct and efforts to conceal it.”
The motion also says that she went to the D.C. jail to “participate in a ‘J6 Block Party’” and discussed both her pending case and the case in which she was testifying as a government witness.
The X account engaged with fellow Jan. 6 defendants Brandon Straka and Couy Griffin, and promoted the conspiracy theory that Trump supporter Ray Epps was an FBI plant meant to encourage the crowd that day, the government says.
Read the government’s request to revoke her release here.
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