A Frisco enterprise proprietor who chartered a personal jet to attend the Jan. 6 Donald Trump rally after which stormed the Capitol constructing was sentenced Tuesday to seven days in jail, authorities stated.
Jason Lee Hyland, 39, had pleaded responsible in March to a misdemeanor rely of parading, demonstrating or picketing within the Capitol constructing. Tuesday’s sentencing listening to was held in Washington.
He chartered the jet with Frisco actual property dealer Jennifer “Jenna” Ryan and Colleyville actual property agent Katherine “Katie” Schwab, who additionally joined a mob that breached the Capitol, federal court docket data stated. Hyland and Schwab are in a relationship that started round that point, authorities stated.
Ryan, 52, documented the Texas trio’s two-day journey to Washington on Fb and Twitter. That included a photograph of her, Hyland and Schwab posing on Jan. 5, 2021 in entrance of a personal airplane on the tarmac of a Denton airport earlier than their departure.
Ryan, who remained defiant and unrepentant after the assault, served a 60-day sentence for her half through the violent rebellion. Like Hyland, she had pleaded responsible to a misdemeanor. However Ryan gained notoriety after the riot for bragging on-line about her participation, and he or she stated in media interviews that she didn’t remorse her actions.
Ryan additionally posted a tweet saying, “Sorry I’ve blonde hair white pores and skin an incredible job an incredible future and I’m not going to jail…I did nothing flawed.”
Schwab, 34, is scheduled to plead responsible subsequent week.
U.S. District Choose Christopher Cooper additionally issued Hyland a $4,000 tremendous and ordered him to pay $500 in restitution, officers stated.
Prosecutors requested the choose to offer Hyland 30 days behind bars, saying that he and Schwab shouted insults at officers who had been combating with rioters whereas defending the Capitol. The pair known as the officers traitors, “thereby probably inflaming the gang,” stated prosecutor Karen Rochlin in a sentencing memo.
Hyland additionally informed his co-defendants to destroy proof, and he lied to the FBI concerning the nature of his involvement, the prosecutor wrote.
Ryan and Schwab additionally “shouted insults concerning the media” through the revolt. And Schwab kicked some media gear that the mob destroyed and threw one other piece onto the bottom whereas Hyland and Ryan watched, authorities stated.
Hyland, who later expressed regret and remorse for his actions, didn’t appear involved on the time concerning the violence and property destruction, in response to prosecutors.
After leaving the Capitol, Hyland made three brief video recordings together with one during which he stated the next: “They’re coming for taxpayers like me who pay over half 1,000,000 {dollars} a yr in taxes. I simply entered this f-ing home as a result of I personal a part of it. We’re not gonna give up. You may’t steal elections from us.”
However his protection legal professional, Nina Ginsberg, famous that her shopper was contained in the Capitol for less than about 2 minutes and didn’t put up something about his exploits on social media.
She stated he deserved probation as a result of he cooperated with the FBI, has no felony historical past, wasn’t violent, and didn’t trigger any property injury through the riot.
“Whereas his transient foray into the Capitol and his presence on the Capitol grounds can’t be condoned, Mr. Hyland has given this Courtroom no motive to suspect that his conduct was something apart from aberrant conduct within the midst of an unprecedented political maelstrom,” Ginsberg wrote in her sentencing memo.
The trio later returned to their resort room and celebrated the breach of the Capitol, data present. They flew again to Texas the next day in Hyland’s airplane.
Later that day, Ryan messaged Hyland and her different journey companions to report that she was “receiving threats and different hostile reactions” to her posts and broadcasts concerning the riot, court docket data stated.
Hyland responded in a message, “We didn’t commit violence or destruct property. I’m hoping my generosity for the airplane journey doesn’t backfire. Y’all cease speaking to individuals about it. Utterly. And delete all your associated social media posts. Particularly if I’m in them. Recognize it prematurely and I hope to see you all once more when the mud settles.”
Hyland, a divorced father of two youngsters, owns a roofing and building enterprise.
Hyland labored as an actual property agent from Could 2012 to July 2017, his legal professional stated in her submitting. He left the agency to start out a industrial common contracting enterprise in late 2017 that makes a speciality of catastrophic restorations and industrial renovations, she stated.
‘Patriot flight’
Hyland initially invited “members of his social circle” to journey with him to Washington, D.C. to attend the Trump rally however none accepted, so he requested Ryan and Schwab, two Fb buddies he didn’t know, to accompany him, in response to court docket data.
Hyland, who at one level held a scholar pilot’s license, despatched a bunch message on Jan. 5, 2021 underneath the topic header “Patriot Flight,” the FBI stated. The message stated, “Thanks for becoming a member of me to DC to face up for America. This shall be historic — irrespective of the result,” and it gave particulars of the flight departure, court docket data present.
A witness gave FBI brokers textual content messages despatched among the many group, in response to court docket data.
On Jan. 6, the day of the riot, Ryan’s 21-minute Fb Dwell video confirmed the group, together with Hyland, strolling towards the Capitol constructing. He walked into the Capitol to the sound of blaring alarms whereas passing doorways with shattered home windows.
Throughout a Jan. 19 interview with FBI brokers, Hyland stated he was accountable for the flight logistics however didn’t know any of his fellow vacationers previous to the journey.
Hyland stated the group stayed the night time at a Washington resort and attended the Trump rally the next day.
“Hyland described the stroll up the steps of the Capitol constructing as a ‘funnel.’ There have been two Capitol Law enforcement officials holding the doorways open on the high of the steps,” the affidavit stated. “Hyland requested if he might go inside, and one of many law enforcement officials stated, ‘Everybody else is.’”
Hyland stated he left the constructing after listening to a loud bang much like a “flash bang” grenade.
Schwab posted on Fb after the breach the next: “The Nationwide Guard was in there and didn’t transfer an inch. They sat again. They didn’t combat in opposition to us in any respect … as a result of there was no must. After the lady was shot and killed that’s once we raised hell.”