A Capitol rioter is making a plea for a presidential pardon as President Donald Trump plans to announce a batch of them in his last days in office.
“I think we all deserve a pardon. I’m facing a prison sentence,” Jenna Ryan, a real estate broker who took a private jet to Washington D.C., told a local CBS affiliate in Texas. “I think I do not deserve that and from what I understand, every person is going to be arrested that was there, so I think everyone deserves a pardon, so I would ask the President of the United States to give me a pardon.”
She added that she didn’t intend any violence to happen, and was unaware of the violent behavior of her fellow insurrectionists. That plea of ignorance is somewhat tempered by a picture she posted of herself in front of a broken window at the Capitol reading: ”Window at the capital (sic). And if the news doesn’t stop lying about us we’re going to come after their studios next.”
As Trump plans to pardon or commute the sentences of over 100 people, according to multiple reports, one of the big questions remains whether any Capitol rioters will be in that number.
Another is whether Trump will preemptively pardon himself, his children and his top aides. Some have reportedly urged Trump not to do so, arguing that it will look like an admission of guilt and may sway Senate Republicans towards voting to convict him during the second half of the impeachment proceedings, according to the Washington Post.
Another name floated recently has been that of Steve Bannon, who was indicted for conspiracy to commit wire fraud and money laundering in relation to a crowdsourced project to build a wall on the U.S.-Mexico border.
Trump is planning to decamp to Florida Wednesday morning, and will likely unveil the pardons and commutations before then.
