A Texas woman who boasted that she would not go to jail for her role in the Jan. 6 Capitol riot because of her “blonde hair” and “white skin,” was sentenced to serve time in jail on Thursday.
U.S. District Judge Christopher Cooper sentenced Texas real estate agent Jenna Ryan to serve 60 days behind bars. Ryan pleaded guilty to a single count of parading, demonstrating or picketing in a Capitol building in August. She will also have to pay the standard $500 in restitution required in all January 6 misdemeanor plea deals, according to WUSA9.
Judge Cooper believes Ryan’s sentence will tell Americans “something about the courts and about how our country responded to what happened, and I think the sentence should tell them that we take it seriously.”
Ryan and several of her friends chartered a private jet from Texas to Washington D.C to attend Donald Trump’s ‘Stop the Steal’ rally on Jan. 6. She entered the building with the mob and later posted a photo standing in front of a broken window with the caption, “Window at The capital [sic]. And if the news doesn’t stop lying about us we’re going to come after their studios next.”
She later defended her role in the riot during interviews. She has called herself a “martyr” and said she “did something noble” by storming the Capitol.
In March when one Twitter user said she would go to jail for her involvement in the riot, Ryan told the individual that would never happen because she is white.
“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,” she wrote. “Sorry to rain on your hater parade. I did nothing wrong.”
“A defendant who believes she is immune from strict punishment because of her race and physical appearance may reoffend because the consequences for wrongdoing will never, in the defendant’s mind, be severe even when severity is merited,” the sentencing memo states.
Ryan is one of more than 100 defendants who have now entered guilty pleas in connection to the riot, WUSA reports.
