Texas realtor who bragged about taking a private jet to the Capitol riots begs for donations to help cover legal fees from federal charges
The Texas real estate broker facing federal charges for storming the US Capitol is begging for donations to help cover her legal fees - after she bragged about traveling to Washington, DC, on a private jet.
Jennifer 'Jenna' Ryan, 50, of Frisco, turned herself into authorities last week for her role in the January 6 Capitol siege that left five people dead.
She was released from custody hours later and returned home, where she demanded that President Donald Trump pardon her from charges of knowingly entering a restricted building and disorderly conduct.
But the demand went unanswered as Trump left office without adding Ryan to his long list of last minute pardons - so now she's looking to fellow MAGA fans for help.
'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. Any amount helps,' Ryan tweeted on Thursday along with a link to her PayPal account.
'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 my name.'
'I am being surrounded by hateful people who are calling me a racist and asking for me to go to prison for 10 or 20 years and saying all sorts of horrible mean things about me. They don't even know me. They want my business destroyed. I need help patriots.'
The plea racked up thousands of replies in a matter of hours - the majority of them from unsympathetic critics who pointed out the irony of Ryan asking for financial assistance after she boasted about her posh private flight to DC.
Jenna Ryan, a Texas real estate broker facing federal charges for storming the US Capitol, is begging for donations to help cover her legal fees - after she bragged about traveling to Washington, DC, on a private jet
Ryan, 50, posted her plea for financial support on Twitter on Thursday
The plea racked up thousands of replies in a matter of hours - the majority of them from unsympathetic critics who pointed out the irony of Ryan asking for money after she boasted about her posh private flight to DC
Earlier this week Ryan revealed that she decided to go to DC on a whim after receiving a Facebook message from a handsome stranger looking for people to join him at the rally Trump was holding at the White House. Pictured: Ryan with the new friends she joined on the jet. She did not identify her crush by name but he is presumed to be one of the three men above
But a few people apparently did open their wallets to Ryan, who said she'd already received $1,000 in donations.
She said she originally set up a fundraiser on the Fundly website but 'they shut me down saying I'm a racist'.
She also griped that her computer and MAGA hat were confiscated when FBI agents searched her home over the weekend.
Ryan has fiercely maintained her innocence in the Capitol riots in multiple media interviews this week, including one where she claimed that she only went to DC because a 'very cute guy' invited her.
She said she made the decision on a whim after receiving a Facebook message from a handsome stranger looking for people to join him at the rally Trump was holding at the White House.
'He was adorable,' the single realtor - who said she loves Trump, firmly believes his unfounded claims of voter fraud and has always wanted to attend one of his rallies - told NBC News on Monday. 'So I said: 'Heck yeah, let's go.' I mean, who wouldn't go and get on a private jet?'
But unfortunately for Ryan, the pairing wasn't meant to be.
'There was another adorable girl there, too, and they ended up getting together, darn it,' she said.
Two days after the insurrection Ryan realized she had much bigger problems than the failed romance, as the FBI identified her as a person of interest and shared grabs of a livestream she filmed of herself storming the Capitol.
Ryan didn't identify her crush by name, but he is believed to be one of two men she and another woman were photographed with next to the private jet before their flight to the capital.
Three of the people in the photo have been identified but the two others remain a mystery.
One of the men, seen right next to Ryan, is her friend and fellow realtor Brian Miller. On the other side of Miller is Katie Schwab, another realtor who was reportedly terminated from her job at Century 21 over her involvement in the insurrection.
Ryan is the only member of the group facing charges.
Ryan posted this photo inside the cabin of the plane on Facebook and said the group spent the flight getting to know each other while drinking and bonding over their mutual love for Trump
Ryan is the only member of the jet group facing charges for involvement in the MAGA riots
In an interview with NBC News on Monday , Ryan said she only went to DC because a 'very cute guy' invited her on a private jet
.@CynthiaMcFadden sat down with Texas real estate agent Jenna Ryan who says she took no part in the violence on January 6 though her social media posts raise significant questions. pic.twitter.com/vTKFHcpnVw
— TODAY (@TODAYshow) January 18, 2021
.@CynthiaMcFadden sat down with Texas real estate agent Jenna Ryan who says she took no part in the violence on January 6 though her social media posts raise significant questions. pic.twitter.com/vTKFHcpnVw
She turned herself in on Friday morning, but has maintained that she did nothing wrong and has no regrets.
'I have no guilt in my heart,' Ryan told NBC News.
'My intention was not to have a riot. I did not want to have a riot. I was documenting what was going on in the environment I was in.'
'I'm glad I was there, because I witnessed history,' she added later. 'I'll never get the chance to do that again. No one will probably ever be able to go near the again.'
Ryan grew increasingly combative over the course of the interview, especially when asked about the posts she shared on social media during the riots. In one video she was heard saying: 'We're going to go down and storm the Capitol.'
She insisted that her language did not indicate any intent for aggression.
'If you look up the term "storm", you can storm in the kitchen. You can storm in and say: 'No more,'' she said.
'I'm not storming in to kill people. What I meant, life or death, is if someone kills me, I will stand for my truth, even if someone kills me.'
She said she feels terrible that five people died as a result of the insurrection, but is adamant that she didn't break the law.
'I, personally, feel innocent in everything that I have done,' she said. 'I feel like I was perfectly within my rights.
'I feel like the police officers were ushering people into the Capitol. There were thousands of people there. I have no guilt.'
The FBI released video of Ryan inside the Capitol prior to her arrest last week
Ryan said accepted the man's invitation to go on his private jet two days beforehand, and asked her friend Brian to come with her as a 'bodyguard'.
She posted a photo inside the cabin of the plane on Facebook and said the group spent the flight getting to know each other while drinking and bonding over their mutual love for Trump.
'We were going in solidarity with President Trump,' Ryan said. 'President Trump requested that we be in DC on the 6th. So this was our way of going and stopping the steal.'
The group arrived on the 5th and spent the night at The Westin Washington before getting up at 6am, donning MAGA gear and joining 'like-minded patriots' gathered at the White House to hear Trump speak.
As the president and his allies riled up the crowd and encouraged them to march to the Capitol, where Congress was convened to certify Joe Biden's election victory, Ryan realized she had a problem: 'There were no port-a-potties.'
'We could not get to a port-a-potty,' she said. 'That was, like, my biggest concern, actually. Because I like to always know I have a bathroom nearby.'
The group then returned to their hotel for a bathroom break and a chance to warm up. They turned on the TV to find Vice President Mike Pence, whom Trump had begged to overturn the election, accepting the results as he presided over the joint session of Congress.
'We were devastated,' Ryan said. 'It was like my dad - somebody I love, somebody I respect - just betrayed someone else I love and I respect, including the country. I couldn't believe it.'
When Ryan's friends decided to head back out to the Capitol, she tagged along because: 'I didn't want to be at the hotel by myself.'
Along the way she shared her since-deleted 21-minute livestream, telling the camera: '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.'
Ryan posted a 21-minute livestream on Facebook as she made her way to the Capitol, telling the camera: '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.' The video has since been deleted but is described in an affidavit for her arrest
She went on to post several other videos as she and her friends shoved their way onto the Capitol steps and into the Rotunda.
'We're going to f***ing go in here. Life or death,' she was heard saying, according to federal prosecutors. 'It doesn't matter. Here we go.'
In another clip she was heard calling Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell a 'turtleface' and complaining that she needed a restroom, followed by: 'We are armed and dangerous. This is just the beginning.'
Inside the Capitol she filmed herself saying: 'Y'all know who to hire for your realtor. Jenna Ryan for your realtor.'
She also allegedly posted a photo of a broken window on Twitter, writing: 'Window at The capital. And if the news doesn't stop lying about us we're going to come after their studios next.'
She later tweeted: 'We just stormed the Capital. It was one of the best days of my life.'
Ryan also posted a photo of a broken window on Twitter, writing: 'Window at The capital. And if the news doesn't stop lying about us we're going to come after their studios next'
Ryan lashed out at the media again during her interview with NBC News, where she claimed that she left the Capitol after 'two minutes' because she felt uncomfortable.
'If you want to skewer me in the media and make me out to be a violent person because it fits your storyline, then, you know, that is something that you're going to have to live with in your life,' she said when asked about the rhetoric described in the affidavit for her arrest.
'I know my heart was to go there and let my voice be heard, no matter what. And I stood on the steps of the Capitol, and I did what I came to do. And I did pray.'
Ryan hit out at the FBI agents who raided her home shortly after she returned to Texas and took the MAGA hat she was seen wearing in the Capitol videos.
'The FBI's coming out and raiding my house for a misdemeanor,' she said. 'Taking my MAGA hat. Okay? They took my MAGA hat.'
She also condemned the lawmakers who went ahead to certify Biden's 'fraudulent' victory, saying that she won't vote ever again because she's 'given up on America'.
Ryan said she is hopeful that Trump will pardon her and other protesters charged over the insurrection before he leaves office on Wednesday, but added: 'I'm going to support him no matter what he does.'
She first made her plea for a pardon in an interview with CBS11 over the weekend.
'I would like a pardon from the President of the United States. I think that we all deserve a pardon. I'm facing a prison sentence. I think that I do not deserve that,' she said.
'From what I understand everyone is going to be arrested that was there, so I think everyone deserves a pardon. I would ask the President ask the United States to give me a pardon.'
She first made her plea for a pardon in an interview with CBS11 over the weekend. 'I would like a pardon from the President of the United States. I think that we all deserve a pardon. I'm facing a prison sentence. I think that I do not deserve that,' she said.
Ryan argued that she should not be punished for 'following what we were called by to do.
'He asked us to fly there, he asked us to be there,' she said of Trump. 'So I was doing what he asked us to do.
'So as far as in my heart of hearts, do I feel like a criminal? No. I am not the villain a lot of people make me out to be or think I am because I'm a Trump supporter.'
Ryan's remarks mirrored an argument from the lawyer for 'QAnon shaman' Jacob Chansley, 33, who stormed the Capitol wearing a fur headdress with horns.
Speaking to CNN last Thursday, Attorney Albert Watkins said Chansley deserves a pardon because his client genuinely felt he was obeying the president's demands in the raid.
'He listened to him. He felt like he was answering the call of our President,' Watkins said.
More than 125 people have been arrested so far on charges related to the violent insurrection led by Trump supporters at the Capitol. Charges range from curfew violations to serious federal felonies related to theft and weapons possession.
In total five people were killed during the siege, including one US Capitol Police officer who was struck in the head with a fire extinguisher.
The FBI and other law enforcement agencies continue to search for the identities of several other individuals who were photographed rioting in the Capitol.
Ryan's remarks mirrored an argument from the lawyer for 'QAnon shaman' Jacob Chansley, 33, who stormed the Capitol wearing a fur headdress with horns
Ryan has said she fears that her involvement in the riots could ruin her real estate career.
The Texas Real Estate Commission has faced numerous complaints demanding that her license be revoked. Ryan responded by issuing a statement saying she was 'truly heartbroken' over the lives lost during the assault.
'Unfortunately, what I believed to be a peaceful political march turned into a violent protest,' she wrote on Twitter.
She also tweeted that she lost a publishing deal for a book related to her work.
'This has taken my company. This has taken my business,' she tweeted.
Since the rally she said she has received thousands of death threats and people attacking her business. Despite this, she said she would do it all over again.