Part of: Mace Federal Removal (Berg v. Bryant → D.S.C.) · Berg v. Bryant (and Bryant's Third-Party Complaint against Mace) · Assignment Desk Works, LLC v. Alexis Berg · Musgrave v. Mace (2:25-cv-01823-RMG) · Nancy Mace's Gag Order Violations · Litigation Overview & Court-Filing Index
Bowman's lawyer reports a December 27 Instagram video to the judge as a gag-order violation
On December 27, 2025, while the Berg v. Bryant gag order was in effect, Mace posted a video on Instagram from @repnancymace; counsel for co-defendant Eric Bowman, Robert Merting, emailed Judge Hocker on December 29 to report it, and Bryant and Bowman's January 12, 2026 contempt motion attaches it as Exhibits 5-7, contending it referred to Bowman by name in terms implying criminal conduct 'that has not been alleged in this litigation.'
On November 26, 2025, Judge Donald B. Hocker of the Charleston County Court of Common Pleas, Ninth Judicial Circuit, entered a sua sponte gag order in Berg v. Bryant, Case No. 2025-CP-10-03124. The order barred all parties and their agents and attorneys from "Making or publishing any comment about any aspect of this case … via oral, written, social media, text or any other forms of communication" and from commenting about "any party or attorney to this case or anyone connected to this case." It further prohibited "publishing, transmitting, posting or sharing any … videos … related to any aspect of this case."
On December 27, 2025, at approximately 10:00 p.m., from her verified Instagram account @repnancymace, Mace posted a video. According to counsel for co-defendant Eric Bowman, the video "referred to Eric Bowman by his full name" and, the motion states, used language implying conduct not alleged in the case.
The report to the court
On December 29, 2025, Robert Merting, attorney for co-defendant Bowman, emailed Judge Hocker to report the video. On January 12, 2026, plaintiffs Patrick Bryant and Bowman filed an "Order to Show Cause and Motion for Civil Contempt Against Nancy Mace" in Berg v. Bryant and attached Merting's email as Exhibit 5 and the video and its transcript as Exhibits 6-7.
The motion's description of the video appears on page 6:
Page 6 of the January 12, 2026 contempt motion in Berg v. Bryant (No. 2025-CP-10-03124), identifying the December 27, 2025 Instagram video as Exhibits 5-7 and describing Bowman's counsel's report to the judge.
The motion states that the video "referred to Eric Bowman by his full name" and used language "implying criminal conduct that has not been alleged in this litigation." The motion's caption notes that Merting wrote to Judge Hocker: "I wanted to alert you to a recent post that includes Mr. Bowman."
The video itself was not made part of the public docket. According to the motion, a copy "will be downloaded to a thumb drive and sent via FedEx to the chambers", a common practice for handling sensitive video evidence in trial courts.
Mace's position
Mace has disputed both the contempt motion and the validity of the gag order itself. In a January 21, 2026 letter to Judge Hocker, filed on the state docket and attached as an exhibit to her federal removal filings, she wrote that the order is "overly broad, unconstitutional, and unenforceable, particularly as applied to a sitting member of the U.S. Congress and leading candidate for Governor of South Carolina." She simultaneously moved the contempt proceeding to the U.S. District Court for the District of South Carolina and declared: "I will not be SILENCED." The full letter is reproduced in the dispatch "Kangaroo Court … I will not be SILENCED".
The underlying dispute is the subject of ongoing civil litigation in Berg v. Bryant (Case No. 2025-CP-10-03124) and related actions, and a separate South Carolina State Law Enforcement Division (SLED) investigation. All allegations in the contempt motion remain unproven and contested. Mace denies Bryant's claims and contests the validity of the gag order; Bryant and Bowman deny Mace's allegations; no underlying matter has been adjudicated. The gag order's constitutionality is itself disputed and has not been ruled upon. Nothing here is a finding of fact. For background on the parties see People in the Public Record.
Sources & related coverage:
- The contempt motion: Order to Show Cause and Motion for Civil Contempt Against Nancy Mace (PDF), filed January 12, 2026, Berg v. Bryant, No. 2025-CP-10-03124 (Charleston County Court of Common Pleas); the December 27, 2025 Instagram video appears as Exhibits 5-7, with counsel's report as Exhibit 5.
- The gag order: Gag Order, Nov. 26, 2025 (PDF), Judge Donald B. Hocker, Berg v. Bryant, No. 2025-CP-10-03124.
- Case hub: Berg v. Bryant, court filings
- Topic overview: The Gag Order · The Litigation
- Mace's response: "Kangaroo Court … I will not be SILENCED" (Jan. 21, 2026)
- SC Judicial Branch Public Index, Case No. 2025-CP-10-03124 (Charleston County).