Judge lands bruising blow on Trump in plot to 'rewrite history'

A federal judge struck down President Donald Trump's ongoing effort to "rewrite the history" of the Jan. 6 riot, using a court ruling to cement the facts of the Capitol attack.

U.S. District Judge Christopher Cooper — the Obama-appointed judge who originally sentenced Jennifer "Jenna" Ryan for her role in the riot — issued the ruling Thursday in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, denying Ryan's bid to erase her conviction from the record.

Ryan, a Dallas-area real estate agent, was sentenced in 2021 to 60 days in prison after pleading guilty to a misdemeanor for parading inside the Capitol, according to CBS News. Trump pardoned her on Jan. 20, 2025, as part of a blanket clemency covering roughly 1,500 January 6 defendants, local outlets reported.

After the pardon, Ryan returned to court asking Cooper to go further. She sought to wipe her conviction from the record entirely, using a rarely granted legal remedy that allows a court to vacate a conviction due to a fundamental error in the proceedings.

Cooper denied that request and used the ruling to tear down Trump's reimagined version of Jan. 6.

"Given the historical significance of the events of January 6 and ongoing efforts to rewrite them, the Court will take the opportunity to set the record straight…" Cooper wrote, making clear the ruling was about more than Ryan's petition.

"Numerous members of the mob forced their way inside the Capitol building by breaking windows and assaulting police officers," Cooper wrote, walking through the facts of that day in the permanent federal court record.

Cooper found that Ryan had been in her hotel room watching the riot on television — and that she chose to leave and join the crowd.

"The Court observed that Ryan decided to join the action after seeing, on the news, that the rallies at the Capitol had turned violent.... But Ryan also celebrated the riot," Coomer noted. "She announced on social media that she was going to 'storm the Capitol.' Once inside, Ryan was captured on video chanting 'Fight for Trump!' while fire alarms blared."

"Afterward, Ryan posted a photo beside a broken Capitol window, threatening that she and her companions would 'come after' news studios if they did not 'stop lying,'" according to the ruling. "Ryan applauded the violence and egged on destruction of property at the Capitol on January 6."

"There is no doubt that Ryan paraded in the Capitol without permission on January 6," Cooper observed, adding that the consequences of participating in the riot "will not be scrubbed from public memory, even if her conviction is vacated."

"Her involvement in the events of January 6 is clear," Cooper said in the ruling's conclusion, before turning to the pardon itself.

"The validity of her prosecution and sentencing is unassailable. Fortunately for her, there are some who wish to rewrite the history of that day, and that desire resulted in her pardon," the judge said, making her case without directly naming the president.