A Dallas-area real estate agent who is facing charges for allegedly being part of the pro-President Donald Trump mob that stormed the US Capitol last week said she's a "normal person" who listened to her president.
Jenna Ryan, 50, is accused of "knowingly" entering or remaining in the restricted building or grounds without lawful authority and disorderly conduct on Capitol grounds on January 6, according to a criminal complaint filed by the FBI in a Washington federal court.
Matt DeSarno, special agent in charge of the FBI Dallas office, confirmed that Ryan had turned herself in and that her Carrollton apartment was searched on Friday. No personal telephone for Ryan was available, and court records didn't list a lawyer for her as of Friday.
“I would like a pardon from the President of the United States.” Dallas area realtor Jenna Ryan is the 2nd D.C. riot participant to ask for one. She flew on a private jet to D.C. to “stop the steal.” FBI arrested her today. She says: I feel persecuted. pic.twitter.com/Rk4XCYVqX3
Ryan shared photos and videos on social media, including a video in which she says, "We're gonna go down and storm the Capitol," in front of a bathroom mirror, according to the FBI criminal complaint.
Nearly halfway through, Ryan appears to have made it to the front door, chanting, "USA, USA" and "Here we are, in the name of Jesus."
Jenna Ryan, far left, prepares to board a private plane before flying to Washington DC. Photo / via Twitter
In an interview with KTVT-TV in Fort Worth, Ryan said she hoped that Trump would pardon her.
"I just want people to know I'm a normal person, that I listen to my president who told me to go to the Capitol, that I was displaying my patriotism while I was there and I was just protesting and I wasn't trying to do anything violent and I didn't realise there was actually violence," Ryan said.
Meet Jenna Ryan, the Texas real estate broker that took a private jet to join Trump supporters at the DC rally, "We're all going to be up here. We're going to be breaking those windows, dealing with the tear gas... WE HAVE TO because THEY are taking our sh*t" pic.twitter.com/HD51tG3FD8
Ryan is the third person in FBI's Dallas region of northern, northeastern and near western Texas to be named in criminal complaints, DeSarno said.
Ryan outside the Capitol building. Photo / via Twitter
Retired Air Force Lt. Col. Larry Rendall Brock Jr. of Grand Prairie, another Dallas suburb, was released to home confinement on Thursday after a prosecutor alleged the former fighter pilot had zip-tie handcuffs on the Senate floor because he planned to take hostages.
Texas real estate broker, Jenna Ryan: "I'm not messing around. When I come to sell your house. This is what I will do. I will f*ckin sell your house." Then storms into the Capitol. pic.twitter.com/CVLJV6DjHz
Troy Anthony Smocks, 58, of Dallas, was arrested Friday after a criminal complaint was filed in Washington accusing him of "knowingly and willfully transmitting threats in interstate commerce."
Court documents allege that Smocks used social media to post threats on January 6-7 regarding the riots. The threats included that he and others would return to the US Capitol on Tuesday with weapons and form a mass so large that no army could match them.
He threatened they would "hunt these cowards down like the Traitors that each of them are," specifically threatening Republicans not allied with them, Democrats and "and Tech Execs," according to a court affidavit.
Meet Jenna Ryan, the Texas real estate broker that took a private jet to join Trump supporters at the DC rally, making threats against the media: "Window at the Capitol. And if the news doesn't stop lying about us we're going to come after their studios next." pic.twitter.com/1naMoOcPTD
Smocks could not be reached for comment, and no attorney for him is listed in court records.
Also Friday, the first Houston-area resident to be accused of participating in the riot was arrested. In a criminal complaint filed in Washington, the FBI accuses Joshua Lollar, 39, of Spring, of being the spearhead of a group trying unsuccessfully to break through a line of Washington Metropolitan police officers into the Capitol.
