A Texas real estate agent is facing criminal charges for her participation in last week’s attack on the U.S. Capitol Building.
Jenna Ryan, a Realtor based in Frisco, Texas, was charged with disorderly conduct and “knowingly entering or remaining in any restricted building or grounds without lawful authority,” according to a criminal complaint filed in federal court on Friday.
She was part of a group who flew on a private plane from Denton, Texas, to Washington, D.C., with the intention of joining the protestors, some of whom subsequently breached the Capitol on Jan. 6.
Ryan is self-employed, according to her LinkedIn page. Her company’s website is down and she could not immediately be reached. But in an interview with HousingWire earlier this week, Ryan disputed her involvement in the destruction at the Capitol. “I was just there to let my voice be heard and document the events,” Ryan said. “I was not part of the violence.”
But according to the complaint, filed in U.S. District Court of the District of Columbia, Ryan repeatedly filmed her involvement in the unrest and allegedly referenced “storming the Capitol” several times.
Before the event, she posted a video to Facebook in which she said, “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.”
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Ryan is also allegedly visible in security footage taken of the crowd that entered the Capitol. At one point while livestreaming from the Capitol steps, she turns her phone’s camera to face herself, and says, “y’all know who to hire for your Realtor. Jenna Ryan for your Realtor.”
The complaint also states that Ryan posted a since-deleted tweet that said, “We just stormed the Capital. It was one of the best days of my life.”
In an interview with Spectrum News, Ryan said that she “answered the call” from President Donald Trump to be at the Capitol, the Dallas Morning News reported.
Realtor trade groups have widely condemned the mob attack, and some have suspended political contributions in the wake of the events of Jan. 6.
But it’s unclear if agents who participated in the unrest will face repercussions from the National Association of Realtors or from their respective states. The Texas Real Estate Commission released a statement this week in which it said that a Realtor’s license can be suspended if he or she is convicted of a felony or criminal act that involves fraud, but outside of that, revocation is “limited to conduct the license holder undertakes while engaged in real estate brokerage.”
NAR, meanwhile, told Inman that participation in the insurrection does not violate the trade association’s newly amended code of ethics, which now bans public hate speech. It did say, however, that it has not ruled out penalizing those who stormed the Capitol.
“We stand with federal law enforcement as they work to thoroughly investigate this week’s events and ensure all those accused of breaking the law are prosecuted to the fullest extent,” a spokesperson for NAR told Inman.
Chicago real estate agent Libby Andrews was fired from her job at @properties after her involvement in the chaos in D.C. came to light. It’s unclear if she has been charged with any crimes.
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