Skip to main content

Trump Supporter Who Took Private Plane to Storm the Capitol and Then Begged for a Pardon Is Now Begging for Money

 

Jenna Ryan, the highly-memed Texas real estate agent who admittedly took a private plane to participate in the pro-Donald Trump siege of the U.S. Capitol Complex is now pleading for donations from her 19,000 Twitter followers.

“I am accepting donations to pay legal fees and losses due to my arrest and charges by the FBI for protesting at the US Capitol. Thank you for your support,” she wrote. “Any amount helps.”

https://twitter.com/dotjenna/status/1352292046082605062?s=20

As recently as Dec. 30, Ryan tweeted that she was “abundantly blessed” and has “plenty of money.”

https://twitter.com/dotjenna/status/1344153164795281411?s=20

This is the Twitter account on which Ryan posted a picture of herself on Jan. 6.

“Window at The capital [sic]. And if the news doesn’t stop lying about us we’re going to come after their studios next,” the tweet said.

The FBI included an image of that tweet and an image of Ryan inside the Capitol as part of an affidavit.

On Thursday, Ryan tweeted a link to her PayPal account for supporters to transfer her funds, saying that her original fundraising account with Fundly was shut down. The company called her, in Ryan’s words, “a racist.” PayPal shut her down, too, on Thursday.

“I’ve been doing transaction was with PayPal for 20 years. And they canceled me because I raised $200 today. The New World order is trying to intimidate me. Thank God I have Jesus on my side. Power of God to move mountains,” she said in a since-deleted tweet.

Ryan also admitted she didn’t need the donations, but presented it as her giving people an opportunity to be “blessed.”

According to the charging document filed with the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia last week, after arriving at the Capitol on Jan. 6, Ryan posted a video to her Facebook account depicting her in a bathroom mirror, saying, “We’re gonna go down and storm the Capitol. They’re down there right now and that’s why we came and so that’s what we are going to do. So wish me luck.”

Federal prosecutors in D.C. charged Ryan with one count of knowingly entering or remaining in any restricted building or grounds without lawful authority and one count of disorderly conduct on Capitol grounds.

The misdemeanor defendant previously defended her participation in the insurrection as a display of her patriotism saying, “I thought I was following my president; I thought I was following what we were called to do.”

Ryan also declared that she and everyone else who participated in the failed deadly coup deserved to be pardoned by President Trump before he left office. But with that option not materializing before Joe Biden’s inauguration on Wednesday, Ryan is now claiming her prosecution is politically motivated and anti-Christian.

“There is a concerted effort to destroy patriotic, Christian, patriots and Trump supporters. It is happening, and we need to come together. At this point I need support so that I can clear my name,” she wrote. “I have to go to trial in Washington DC for this misdemeanor. I believe I was wrongfully arrested and charged and we have to fight for my freedom and decl my name.”

https://twitter.com/dotjenna/status/1352301016092434433?s=20

Another possible defense appears to be that Capitol cops let “protesters” in.

https://twitter.com/dotjenna/status/1352379954739228672?s=20

Despite her cries of being a victim, Ryan’s own social media posts appear to show her that she was aware there could be consequences up to and including death for entering the Capitol.

“We are going to [fucking] go in here. Life or death, it doesn’t matter. Here we go,” she said in a now-deleted Facebook video, according to the Austin American-Statesman. “Y’all know who to hire for your Realtor. Jenna Ryan for your Realtor.”

Ryan, who previously trolled those who were preparing for her inevitable arrest and prosecution and who castigated attorneys who advised her against posting incriminating evidence, also said that federal authorities had confiscated all of her computers, her phone, and even her MAGA hat.

https://twitter.com/dotjenna/status/1352298794587746310?s=20

[image via screen capture from KTVT-TV]

Tags:

Follow Law&Crime:

Jerry Lambe is a journalist at Law&Crime. He is a graduate of Georgetown University and New York Law School and previously worked in financial securities compliance and Civil Rights employment law.