A Texas woman who participated in the January 6 Capitol insurrection and later bragged that she wouldn’t face jail time because she is white with blond hair and had a good job, was sentenced to two months behind bars Thursday, the Associated Press reported. While other rioters convicted of misdemeanors have been sentenced to probation or confinement at home, prosecutors argued for Jennifer Leigh Ryan to see jail time for what they described as a lack of honesty and remorse for her actions.
Ryan’s statements that she would not be punished for her role in the attack on the Capitol building also demonstrated that she doesn’t understand the gravity of her crime, prosecutors said.
Though Ryan, a real estate agent, wasn’t in danger of seeing more serious felony charges, U.S. District Judge Christopher Cooper said that she was still responsible for her role in an attack that led to five deaths and permanently scarred some government institutions.
Cooper also questioned whether Ryan was actually sorry even though she apologized, the AP reported.
“Your actions since January 6 make me doubt some of those things,” the judge said.
For more reporting from the Associated Press, see below:
Julio Cortez/AP Photo
Prosecutors said Ryan traveled to Washington on a jet chartered by a Facebook friend, described Trump’s rally before the riot as a prelude to war, livestreamed her entry into the building as alarms sounded, participated in chants of “Fight For Trump,” tweeted a photo of herself next to broken windows outside the Capitol and later said she deserved a medal for what she did.
Her lawyer responded that she was in the building for only two minutes, didn’t act violently and has a First Amendment right to speak up on social media.
The judge then referred to Ryan’s March 26 tweet in which she wrote, “Definitely not going to jail. Sorry I have blonde hair white skin a great job a great future and I’m not going to jail. Sorry to rain on your hater parade. I did nothing wrong.”
In a letter to the judge, Ryan denied believing she was immune to punishment, saying she was responding to people who made fun of her appearance and called for her to be imprisoned. She said her attorney told her at the time that prosecutors would be recommending a sentence of probation.
“I was attacked and I was answering them,” Ryan said in court.
She is the 10th person charged in the January 6 attack to get a jail or prison sentence. More than 650 people have been charged for their actions at the Capitol.
Prosecutors said Ryan has since downplayed the violence at the Capitol and falsely claimed to probation authorities that she didn’t know there was a riot until she came to the Capitol, even though she had recorded herself in a hotel room watching news coverage of rioters climbing the walls of the Capitol.
After the riot, Ryan said she faced a backlash that included death threats, public heckling and graffiti painted on her real estate signs. She said she had to change her name and disguise herself in public.
Ryan tweeted a photo of herself next to broken windows and holding her fingers in a V sign, with a caption saying, “Window at The capital. And if the news doesn’t stop lying about us we’re going to come after their studios next…”
Shortly afterward, Ryan posted another tweet about a crowd damaging equipment belonging to news organizations, including the AP. She tweeted it was a “cool moment” when rioters “went to town on the AP equipment.”
Ryan is expected to start serving her sentence in January.
Also on Thursday, a Maryland woman who joined the mob’s attack was sentenced to three years of probation, including two months of home detention.
Brittiany Angelina Dillon said her actions at the Capitol were “inexcusable and unacceptable.” She referred to January 6 as the worst day of her life.
“I never want to step foot in Washington, D.C., again, and I love that city,” she said. “Ï don’t want to think about that day. It’s horrible.”
Judge Dabney Friedrich said text messages show Dillon clearly anticipated violence when she went to Washington on January 6 and seemed intent on doing her part to stop Congress from certifying Biden’s victory.
The judge said she was troubled by statements that Dillon made before and after the riot, including her reference to law enforcement officers as “devils.”
“The attack she participated in was an attack on our institutions of government, the rule of law and our democratic process,” Friedrich said.
According to prosecutors, Dillon pushed through a crowd of rioters to approach an entrance to the Capitol but was pushed back before she could make it beyond the building’s threshold.
She wasn’t accused of engaging in any violence or property damage. Dillion pleaded guilty in July to misdemeanor disorderly conduct in a Capitol building.
Andrew Harnik/AP Photo
