Texas realtor bragged she’s ‘not going to jail’ after Capitol riot. She was wrong
When Jenna Ryan headed to Washington, D.C., from Texas on Jan. 6 in a private plane to participate in the attack on the Capitol following President Joe Biden’s election, she didn’t expect to end up in jail.
“Definitely not going to jail. Sorry I have blonde hair white skin, a great job, a great future (sic) and I’m not going to jail. Sorry to rain on your hater parade. I did nothing wrong,” she replied in a viral tweet to one user on March 26.
But Ryan will go to jail after live-streaming the riots and “publicly cheerleading a violent attack that forced an interruption of the certification of the 2020 Electoral College vote count, threatened the peaceful transfer of power after the 2020 Presidential election, injured more than one hundred law enforcement officers, and resulted in more than a million dollars’ worth of property damage,” according to court documents.
On Nov. 4, Ryan was sentenced to 60 days in jail on one count of parading, demonstrating or picketing in a Capitol building, the HuffPost reported. She also must pay $500 in restitution, WUSA and other outlets reported.
The Department of Justice recommended she serve 60 days, while Ryan’s attorney asked for probation, the Denton Record-Chronicle reported.
Ryan is a Frisco, Texas, realtor who posts frequently to her social media accounts as a self-described influencer, court documents say.
According to prosecutors, Ryan was aware of the potential for the day to turn violent. On a Facebook Live stream she said, “We’re gonna go down and storm the Capitol; they’re down there right now and that’s why we came ... I’m kinda freakin’ out. Because I’m going to war,” the documents said.
When she returned from protests, Ryan tweeted that the day was “one of the best” in her life.
“The defendant drew on her considerable experience as a social media influencer to promote violence before her arrival at the Capitol,” prosecutors for the District of Columbia said.
“The defendant’s intrusion into the Capitol has greater significance than someone who simply entered and then left.”
After initially pleading not guilty to charges and asserting in posts and interviews that she did the right thing in storming the Capitol, Ryan entered a plea in August of parading, demonstrating or picketing in a Capitol building, court documents say.
According to the documents, Ryan also attempted to promote her real estate business while storming the Capitol. In a streamed Facebook Live, Ryan was recorded saying, “I am not messing around. When I come to sell your house, this is what I will do. I will f***ing sell your house.”
In a letter dated Oct. 30 to District of Columbia Judge Christopher Cooper, Ryan detailed her remorse.
She wrote, “The stain of that day will haunt me the rest of my life. I am mortified that I went into the Capitol building. I am also petrified to come before you as one of the earliest defendants to plead guilty. I hope you see that I am an imperfect person, but I am not the person portrayed by the media.”
In the letter Ryan says she did not see the violence taking place that day, but prosecutors have photos of her posed next to broken windows and filming rioters, court documents say.
Cooper said while Ryan played a “lesser role in the criminal conduct that took place” than many others did, “that does not mean that you don’t have any culpability in what happened that day,” he said during the sentencing, according to HuffPost.
Ryan has had financial troubles over the past several years, The Washington Post reported. When she was arrested she was shouldering a $37,000 lien for unpaid taxes, she almost lost her home to a foreclosure, and she filed for bankruptcy in 2012.
In February, Ryan told the Post she felt abandoned by the Trump supporters she had initially crusaded for. She said she believed former President Donald Trump when he said the 2020 election had been stolen.
“I bought into a lie, and the lie is the lie, and it’s embarrassing,” she told the Post. “I regret everything.”
Almost 700 people have been charged in the Jan. 6 attack, Insider reports.
In the meantime, it looks like Ryan has plans to start work on a new cause — a nonprofit advocating against cyber-bullying and cancel culture.
