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DALLAS (AP) – A Dallas-area real estate agent who faces charges for allegedly being part of the pro-President Donald Trump mob that stormed the U.S. Capitol last week said it was a “normal person” who listened to their president.
Jenna Ryan, 50, is accused of “knowingly” entering or staying in the building or restricted grounds without legal authorization and disorderly conduct on the Capitol grounds on January 6, according to a criminal complaint filed by the FBI before a Washington Federal Court.
Matt DeSarno, special agent in charge of the FBI office in Dallas, confirmed that Ryan had surrendered and that his apartment in Carrollton was raided on Friday. No personal phones for Ryan were available and court records did not list a lawyer for her on Friday.
Ryan shared photos and videos on social media, including a video in which she said, “We’re going to come down and storm the Capitol,” in front of a bathroom mirror, according to the FBI criminal complaint.
The agent who signed the complaint also noted that Ryan had live streamed a 21-minute Facebook video of her and a group marching towards the Capitol.
“We’re (swearing) going in here,” Ryan said in the video as she approached the top of the stairs on the west side of the Capitol building. “Life or death, whatever. Here we go.”
She then turned the camera to expose her face, noted the complaint, and said, “You all know who to hire for your real estate agent, Jenna Ryan for your real estate agent.” Almost halfway, Ryan seems to have reached the front door chanting “USA, USA” and “Here we are, in the name of Jesus”.
In an interview with KTVT-TV in Fort Worth, Ryan said she hopes Trump will forgive her.
“I just want people to know that I am a normal person, that I listen to my president who told me to go to the Capitol, that I was showing my patriotism while I was there and that I was just protesting and that I didn’t try. do anything violent and I didn’t know there was actually violence, ”Ryan said.
Ryan is the third person in the FBI’s Dallas area in North, Northeast and near West Texas to be named in criminal complaints, DeSarno said.
Retired Air Force Lt. Col. Larry Rendall Brock Jr. of Grand Prairie, another Dallas suburb, was released into house arrest Thursday after a prosecutor alleged the former pilot Hunting had zippered handcuffs on the Senate floor because he planned to take hostages.
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 claim that Smocks used social media to post threats on January 6 and 7 regarding the riots. The threats included that he and others would return to the U.S. Capitol with weapons on Tuesday and form a mass so large no army could match them. He threatened to “hunt down these cowards like the traitors each of them is,” specifically threatening Republicans who are not allied with them, Democrats and “tech executives,” according to a court affidavit.
Smocks could not be reached for comment, and no lawyer for him is listed in court records.
Also on Friday, the first Houston-area resident to be charged with participating in the riot was arrested. In a criminal complaint filed in Washington, the FBI accuses Joshua Lollar, 39, from Spring, of spearheading a group that unsuccessfully tries to break through a line of Washington metropolitan police in the Capitol.
Lollar has been charged with violent entry, unauthorized presence in a restricted area and obstructing law enforcement during a civil unrest. He remains in federal custody pending a detention hearing on Tuesday. No lawyer for him is listed in the court records.
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