- In March, Jenna Ryan tweeted that she wouldn't be imprisoned because she's blonde and white.
- She received a lot of backlash, and a judge cited it during her sentencing.
- Ryan told Insider the backlash has made her afraid to speak her mind.
In March, Jenna Ryan posted a tweet boasting that she was blonde, white, and "definitely not going to jail." Now, nine months later, the Capitol rioter claims the backlash she got for that tweet is making her feel silenced.
When a critic told Ryan on Twitter that she would go to jail, she responded: "Definitely not going to jail. Sorry, I have blonde hair white skin a great job a great future and I'm not going to jail. Sorry to rain on your hater parade. I did nothing wrong."
She has since pleaded guilty to parading on Capitol grounds, and last month, she was sentenced to 60 days in a minimum-security federal prison in north Texas.
At her sentencing, the judge — Christopher R. Cooper of the US District Court for the District of Columbia — said, according to The Washington Post: "You've been very upfront that you feel no sense of shame or guilt … 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."
—Jenna Ryan (@dotjenna) March 26, 2021
In an interview with Insider, she said she now believes the tweet was "very dumb" but claimed it was "taken out of context."
She said she had sent the tweet to her "haters" after reports came out that she had taken a private jet to Washington, DC, to attend the pro-Trump rally that preceded the riot.
"I've received thousands of emails, texts, tweets of people calling me a racist, entitled, insurrection Barbie ... And I was just told that they were going to recommend probation," she said. "And I was like, 'You all, no, I'm not going to prison. I'm sorry I have blonde hair. I'm sorry.'"
"You can't hear inflection on a tweet," she said. "I was like, 'You all, I'm sorry. I have a good job. I'm sorry I'm happy. I'm sorry, you haters.'"
"Since this happened to me, I have a new level of respect for all levels of celebrity, high profile, or even just the ordinary person. Now before I tweet, or before I talk ... I stop and I go, 'Wait a minute, this could be totally off," she said.
"I'm not going to regret being myself and [standing] up for myself," she said. "But now it's changing my whole vernacular because I don't want to be a target ... I can't say 'Nazi' or 'rape' because my freedom of speech has been taken away from me."
She did not specify what she would be a target of, and gave no reason for singling out the words "Nazi" and "rape."
Since being charged in the insurrection, she has expressed regret for entering Capitol grounds on January 6, but said she did not regret attending the rally.
Ryan is due to start her sentence next month.
In a TikTok video posted earlier this month, Ryan said she wants to practice yoga, detox from alcohol, and lose 30 pounds in prison.
She also told Insider she's preparing for her time behind bars by learning prison slang and speaking to prison consultants.