‘I’m facing a prison sentence’: US Capitol rioters plead with Trump for pardons

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Jenna Ryan, a Texas real estate broker who took a private jet to Washington to join the attack on the US Capitol, has pleaded with Donald Trump to pardon her after she was arrested by federal authorities.

After surrendering to the FBI on Friday, Ryan said: “We all deserve a pardon.”

“I’m facing a prison sentence,” she told CBS11 at her home. “I think I do not deserve that.”

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Turning to look into the camera, she said: “I would ask the president of the United States to give me a pardon.”

On Wednesday, Trump was impeached for inciting the attack on 6 January that left five people dead, including a police officer, and sent lawmakers fleeing for their lives.

Ryan said she had been “displaying my patriotism”, adding: “I listen to my president who told me to go to the Capitol.”

Ryan left a trove of information online. Court papers show she posted a picture of herself taking a private jet to Washington DC the day before the riot, subsequently posing on the steps of the Capitol and beside a window smashed as the pro-Trump mob broke in.

“We’re gonna go down and storm the Capitol,” Ryan said in a video posted to Facebook. “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.”

During a live Facebook video at the scene of the incursion, Ryan stated: “We are going to fucking go in here. Life or death, it doesn’t matter. Here we go.”

She climbed the steps of the Capitol, then promoted her real estate business to camera: “Y’all know who to hire for your realtor. Jenna Ryan for your realtor.”

Later, Ryan posted on Twitter: “We just stormed the Capital [sic]. It was one of the best days of my life.”

Trump has largely used the presidential pardon power to benefit political allies. Ryan is the latest person to request a pardon over the Capitol attack.

A lawyer for Jacob Chansley, an Arizona man who wore horns, animal skin and face paint while carrying a spear and entering the Senate chamber, said Trump should do the “honourable thing and pardon those of his peaceful followers who accepted the president’s invitation”.

Albert Watkins said his client had no criminal history and was an “active practitioner of yoga”. He also mentioned Chansley’s diet, which has caused him to reject non-organic meals in federal custody.

Chansley faces six federal charges. On Friday, a judge ordered him held without bail.