Jenna Ryan's sentencing hearing starts at 10 a.m. before Judge Christopher Cooper. The DOJ says she should serve 60 days in jail. Her attorney is asking for probation. My live-tweet of the hearing will start here. #CapitolRiot @wusa9
Of special note: This is the first January 6 sentencing hearing since Chief Judge Howell laid out her (high) standards for sending misdemeanor #CapitolRiot defendants to jail last week. Well see how Judge Cooper may factor that in. google.com/amp/s/www.wusa…
Jenna Ryan has arrived at court for her sentencing.
Jenna Ryan is in court in person today with her attorney, Guy Womack.
Judge Cooper says the probation office's recommendation is for a sentence of 24 months probation. DOJ wants 60 days. Now going over the factors they believe justify that.
"This is not about prosecuting people for any individual political belief," DOJ says. But, DOJ says, words have consequences, which Jenna Ryan should know because she has previously filed and won a defamation suit.
DOJ says Jenna Ryan has taken "limited responsibility" for her physical presence in the Capitol, but not the full context of what she did and what happened that day. Also, hasn't expressed remorse.
DOJ saying Jenna Ryan's letter to the court was "troubling" and downplayed or denied the things she saw on January 6. She didn't go to the Capitol straight from the rally, but after going back to her hotel and seeing news coverage of people scaling the walls.
Ryan said in her letter that she didn't see the violence on January 6, but the DOJ has photos of her filming other rioters smashing media equipment.
"She knew that police were overrun. I think any rational, adult person would conclude that, if police are overrun, they don't want you going there," AUSA says. She passed a broken window, torn down barriers, heard people talking about tear gas.
DOJ says even after she left the building herself, she was recorded encouraging the crowd to continue storming the building. She was "preaching" to a crowd, shouting slogans, walked over to a broken window and posed next to it (that would be the photo below).
"This is someone who said, 'We are going to storm the Capitol, and that is why we came here,'" the DOJ says about Jenna Ryan. "This is someone who said, 'We're going to stop the steal.'"
DOJ says Jenna Ryan isn't "an average Joe." She has a large social media following and her posts about the #CapitolRiot were able to get upward of a quarter-of-a-million views. There's a risk that if she joined a similar attack in the future, she could incite further violence.
DOJ says Ryan has repeatedly framed herself as a martyr, as someone who deserves a medal, as someone who was doing her duty. She is not actually remorseful for what happened, they say.
DOJ says Jenna Ryan hasn't cooperated with the FBI like other defendants, including her co-defendant Eliel Rosa, have. Investigators got access to her devices via subpoena, not voluntarily.
DOJ says there are other #CapitolRiot defendants who immediately expressed remorse and contrition. "That is not what happened in this case."
DOJ says other judges on the D.C. District Court haven't given much weight to regret expressed after an arrest. References the Matthew Mazzocco case. Judge Chutkan sentenced him to 45 days last month. wusa9.com/article/news/n…
"This is a defendant who began that morning by speaking of a prelude to war," the DOJ says about Jenna Ryan. "She indicated she was willing to lay down her life to enter the Capitol, because it was that important to her." #CapitolRiot
DOJ says Jenna Ryan has been trying to reframe her war comments as being about an "information war" (as she did in her letter to the judge). "But one doesn't lay down their life in an information war."
"She claims she didn't witness any violence. I think the violence shows pretty clearly that she did," the DOJ says. Points to the broken window she posed next to.
"The defendant cannot use the First Amendment to incite," the DOJ says. "The defendant cannot use the First Amendment to engage in unlawful conduct."
Jenna Ryan's attorney Guy Womack is up now. He says she went to the "Stop the Steal" rally on January 6 "full of patriotic vim and vigor." Went back to her hotel afterward and "wanted to take a nap," but her friends saw coverage of the riot and wanted to go.
Guy Womack says he wouldn't characterize scaling the walls and scaffolding at the Capitol as violent.

"I think it's stupid," he says.

"You don't think that would lead to violence?" Judge Cooper asks.
Womack says Jenna Ryan left the Capitol because she "had nothing to do there."

Judge Cooper asks if it isn't more likely she left because she got hit by teargas.
On Jenna Ryan's social media posts: "She's a social butterfly. She goes online and posts things"

Womack says Ryan's previous attorney encouraged her to talk to the press. After she spoke with the FBI, she hired him and he told her to "knock it off."
Womack says Jenna Ryan was attempting to plead guilty since the 18th of February. Offered to make a proffer to the FBI. Accepted the plea offer from the DOJ as soon as they made it.
"Miss Ryan is among the least culpable of all the defendants in this case," Womack says.
"I just want to say that I am very sorry," Jenna Ryan says. "I made a mistake and I'm sorry. You will never see my in this light again, I promise. It's not anything that remotely resembles who I am, and I'm sorry."
"I am not the kind of judge who lectures defendants. Certainly not a grown woman like yourself," Judge Cooper says. "But I do try to explain" why he gives the sentences he gives.
Judge Cooper says there is a tendency to "lump" all of the #CapitolRiot defendants together. "It is true that you took a lesser role in the criminal conduct than other defendants did." Didn't organize or participate in violence. Didn't bring weapons. Didn't enter Senate floor.
"There is a dispute over why you left," Judge Cooper says. "I think it's reasonable to think you left not because of regret, but because you didn't want to experience tear gas."
"When you chose to leave your hotel room and march down to the Capitol, I think you knew this was no ordinary protest," Judge Cooper says. "You knew this because you were watching Fox News in real time."
"You knew it when you walked out of your hotel room and said, 'We're going to war and we're going to be breaking windows,'" Judge Cooper says.
"I know you didn't participate [in violence] but you did celebrate it. You cheered it on," Judge Cooper says. "You posed next to a broken window and said, 'We're coming for the media next.'"
"You walked by a police officer, he didn't try to stop you, he didn't say, 'Don't go in.' I get that. But one reason for that was because they were outnumbered. They were overwhelmed," Judge Cooper says.
"No one is being prosecuted for coming to Washington. No one is being prosecuted for the belief that the election was stolen. If you had the good sense not to leave your hotel room, or not to go in once you saw what was happening, you wouldn't be here," Judge Cooper says.
Judge Cooper notes D.C. has protests constantly. "I see them out of my window almost every day. Sometimes I don't even know what they're protesting." Those people aren't arrested unless they break the law, he says.
Judge Cooper: "You were dealt some bad cards in life. As a kid, and as an adult, too. Considering where you started from, you've had to hustle to get to where you are. On the other hand, your statements on social media in the aftermath of January 6 show a lack of accountability."
"You suggested antifa was somehow involved. And perhaps most famously, you said that because you had blonde hair and white skin, you wouldn't be going to jail," Judge Cooper says. Jenna Ryan says she was responding to someone else on social media.
Judge Cooper says, partly as a result of Jenna Ryan's own media presence, her case has generated a lot of attention. "People will want to know" what the penalty is for attacking democratic institutions, "and I think that sentence should show them we take it seriously."
🚨 SENTENCE: Judge Christopher Cooper sentences Jenna Ryan to 60 days in prison + $500 in restitution on one count of parading, demonstrating or picketing in a Capitol building. Ryan had infamously claimed her blonde hair and white skin would keep her out of jail. #CapitolRiot
🚨SENTENCE: Judge Christopher Cooper sentences Jenna Ryan to 60 days in prison + $500 in restitution on one count of parading, demonstrating or picketing in a Capitol building. Ryan had infamously claimed her blonde hair and white skin would keep her out of jail. #CapitolRiot
MORE: Jenna Ryan will serve two months behind bars for her role in the #CapitolRiot. A federal judge pointed to her statements before and after January 6, including one on her way to the Capitol: "I'm going to war." wusa9.com/article/news/n… @wusa9 @EricFlackTV
WATCH: Jenna Ryan spoke to @EricFlackTV after her sentencing today. He asked if she had a statement of remorse. She blamed the media for her jail time, and said she should be able to tweet without being "persecuted." #CapitolRiot
Jenna Ryan: "Yes, I regret ever tweeting."
Care about #CapitolRiot coverage? Consider following me and @EricFlackTV on here. It helps us keep convincing the bosses to let us dedicate time and resources to these cases. (Signing up for the newsletter doesn't hurt either: bit.ly/3plAnKk)
Jenna Ryan has now pinned a photograph of what appears to be the lobby of the Trump International Hotel in D.C.

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More from @JordanOnRecord

4 Nov
Up next, a sentencing hearing starts now for Jonathan Ace Sanders before Judge Carl Nichols. Class "B" misdemeanor. The government is asking for 2 months of home detention as part of a 3-year period of probation. Also 60 hours of community service. #CapitolRiot @wusa9
DOJ says Jonathan Ace Sanders witnessed people smashing in windows, tear gas and flash bangs going off and a "chain of Oath Keepers snaking in through the doors."

"Despite all this, the defendant chose to enter the Rotunda doors propped open by a rioter."
DOJ also notes Sanders is a 20-year veteran of the U.S. Air Force, during which time he earned, among other distinctions, a Purple Heart. That service should be respected, they say.
Read 15 tweets
3 Nov
People want, and can now have, information sources that conform to and reinforce their world views. All reverting to this imaginary model of journalism old schoolers swear once existed would do is perpetuate historical blind spots while not winning a single reader back.
Case in point: The volcanic rage of Fox News viewers after they (accurately!) called Arizona for Joe Biden.
I think we should report facts! I think we should rigorously fact-check them! But more facts aren't going to win back readers who simply reject information they disagree with. People lined up yesterday to see JFK come back to life! What facts haven't we given them?
Read 5 tweets
3 Nov
Switching over to a hearing before Judge Lamberth about the ongoing medical situation w/ Proud Boy Christopher Worrell in the DC Jail. The latest on that: wusa9.com/article/news/n…
Judge Lamberth now talking about the US Marshals' inspection of the DC Jail. He says the Marshals did not find that conditions in CTF (where #CapitolRiot defendants are being held) are not egregious, just that they're not as egregious as the main jail. wusa9.com/article/news/n…
Lamberth says (as reported by @hsu_spencer), that Marshals overheard corrections officers telling inmates not to "snitch" to inspectors. washingtonpost.com/local/public-s…
Read 7 tweets
2 Nov
"... conditions at the CTF 'were observed to be largely appropriate and consistent with federal prisoner detention standards,' and that the problems were primarily in the main jail."

For those following #CapitolRiot cases, January 6 defendants are being held at the CTF.
Still, very serious issues found at the main D.C. Jail, including food and water being withheld as a form of punishment, per @hsu_spencer and @dugganwapo. washingtonpost.com/local/public-s…
Ironically, the surprise inspection of the D.C. Jail instigated by complaints of unequal treatment from #CapitolRiot defendants appears to show they're actually being held in much better conditions than the general population at the main facility. washingtonpost.com/local/public-s…
Read 5 tweets
1 Nov
As expected, Proud Boy Christopher Worrell's attorney, Alex Stavrou, has filed a motion asking for bond review. Stavrou claims D.C. Jail has been delaying "necessary and lifesaving medical attention. But, the docs he filed show Worrell has pushed back appointments. #CapitolRiot ImageImage
Last month, a federal judge held two D.C. Department of Corrections officials in contempt over their failure to turn over medical notes to him about a surgery for a broken pinky finger. Worrell claimed the surgery was necessary because of the jail's delay. wusa9.com/article/news/n…
Last week, the DOJ filed its own batch of records, including an interview with Christopher Worrell's doctor in which he said Worrell had "invented" statements from him and had demanded the surgery against his advice. wusa9.com/article/news/n…
Read 5 tweets
29 Oct
We'll be back in Chief Judge Beryl Howell's (virtual) courtroom shortly for the sentencing of Eric Torrens, another Class "B" misdemeanor case. Based on her sentence just now for Leonard Gruppo, and yesterday for Torrens' co-defendant Jack Griffith, probation only seems likely.
ICYMI: Yesterday Chief Judge Howell laid into the DOJ over their "muddled" and "schizophrenic" approach to sentencing in #CapitolRiot cases. She said she felt her hands were tied by their recommendations that other misdemeanor defendants get probation. wusa9.com/article/news/n…
The conversation between Chief Judge Howell and the DOJ about sentencing continues. Howell says it's incumbent upon the government to explain their sentencing thought process.
Read 15 tweets

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