Woman who stormed Capitol then said she’s never going to prison, is going to prison

Texas real estate agent and Trump supporter Jenna Ryan - who tweeted after storming Capitol Hill on Jan. 6 that she was “definitely not going to jail” - was sentenced to 60 days behind bars on Thursday.

Ryan, who happened to fly to Washington, D.C. on a private plane and marketed her business while live-streaming in the Capitol, played a “lesser role” in the illegal behavior that occurred, according to US District Judge Christopher Cooper.

“I know you didn’t participate [in violence], but you did celebrate it. You cheered it on. You posed next to a broken window and said, ‘We’re coming for the media next’,” Judge Cooper remarked.

He further said that Ryan decided to leave her hotel room and knew that the protest she was attending wasn’t a peaceful one.

Ryan, who faced four charges, pled guilty to one misdemeanor count, acknowledging that she “paraded, demonstrated, or picketed” inside the Capitol when she understood she didn’t have consent to be there.

Sign up to our new free Indy100 weekly newsletter

Ryan attempted to downplay her behavior that day in a letter to Judge Cooper.

She wrote, “I came to D.C. to protest the election results. I wanted my voice to be heard. My only weapon was my voice and my cell phone.”

Ryan continued in her letter that a tweet in which she stated, “blonde hair white skin, a great job, a great future, and I’m not going to jail,” meant she was above the law.

“I wasn’t saying I was above prison. I just felt that it would be unlikely since I was pleading to entering the Capitol for 2 minutes and 8 seconds,” she wrote before claiming that she realised it was a “false notion.”

”A tweet of me taking up for myself against a bully who is harassing me does not indicate that I feel above-the-law.”

Ryan informed the judge that she “just shouldn’t tweet” when Cooper brought up Ryan’s statements on Twitter. Judge Cooper also encouraged Ryan to think about what sources she depended on for news in the future after the court hearing.

In connection with the Capitol attack, the FBI has made over 650 arrests of the number of possible defendants who committed illegal behaviour on that harrowing day.