Public January 6 profile · ready to claim

Ryan Stephen Samsel

Pardoned January 6 defendant

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## Ryan Stephen Samsel: verified January 6 case record Ryan Stephen Samsel was prosecuted in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia in **United States v. Samsel et al., No. 1:21-cr-00537-JMC**, before Judge Jia M. Cobb. This profile separates charging allegations, court findings, public statements, clemency, and later civil claims so readers can see what each source establishes—and what remains disputed. ### Procedural timeline - **January 30, 2021 — Arrest.** DOJ reported that Samsel was arrested in the Eastern District of Pennsylvania and held in federal custody. - **August 25, 2021 — Indictment.** A federal grand jury returned charges that included assaulting, resisting, or impeding officers; physical violence on restricted grounds; physical violence on Capitol grounds; and obstruction of an official proceeding. Those indictment allegations were not findings of guilt at the time they were filed. - **February 2, 2024 — Bench-trial findings.** After a bench trial, Judge Cobb found Samsel guilty of several felony and misdemeanor counts. DOJ reported findings involving civil disorder, assaults on officers, obstruction, physical violence on Capitol grounds, and disorderly or disruptive conduct. - **February 4, 2025 — Sentencing had been scheduled.** DOJ announced this date in September 2024, but no sentence was imposed before clemency. - **January 20, 2025 — Full presidential pardon.** The January 6 clemency proclamation covered Samsel’s federal case. The Office of the Pardon Attorney separately lists **“SAMSEL, RYAN STEPHEN”** among people issued pardon certificates. - **January 21, 2025 — Released from custody.** CBS New York interviewed Samsel immediately after his release from the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn. - **June 9, 2026 — Civil complaint filed.** Samsel filed *Samsel v. United States of America*, No. 3:26-cv-00530, in the Eastern District of Virginia under the Federal Tort Claims Act. The civil case was assigned to Judge David J. Novak. ### What the criminal record establishes DOJ’s February 2024 release states that the court found Samsel guilty after a bench trial. The government described evidence concerning the initial breach of the restricted grounds and later encounters with officers. Those descriptions are attributed to the prosecution and DOJ. The archive does not convert government rhetoric into an independent judgment about Samsel’s motives, beliefs, or moral character. The obstruction finding should be read with a legal caution: the Supreme Court later narrowed 18 U.S.C. § 1512(c)(2) in *Fischer v. United States*. A person-specific post-*Fischer* order addressing Samsel’s count has not yet been preserved here, so this profile does not infer a vacatur or other result that the docket has not verified. ### Sentencing, pardon, and release Samsel remained unsentenced when President Donald J. Trump issued the January 20, 2025 January 6 clemency proclamation. The pardon is not described here as an acquittal or a finding that every underlying allegation was false. It is recorded accurately as executive clemency covering the federal prosecution. CBS New York documented his release the following day and published a firsthand interview. Samsel’s statements in that interview are his own account and are not automatically treated as independently proven facts. ### 2026 Federal Tort Claims Act lawsuit The June 9, 2026 civil docket confirms that Samsel sued the United States in the Eastern District of Virginia under 28 U.S.C. § 1346. Courthouse News reported that his complaint seeks nearly $18 million and asserts claims including malicious prosecution, abuse of process, negligence, medical malpractice, civil conspiracy, assault, battery, and false imprisonment. The complaint’s descriptions of alleged beatings, medical-care denials, isolation, restraints, interference with counsel, and other detention conditions are **plaintiff allegations in an active civil case**. They are not presented as adjudicated findings. Earlier public reporting also documented that D.C. corrections officials denied wrongdoing concerning one alleged 2021 incident. The archive will update this section when the government responds or the court enters material rulings. ### Frequently asked factual questions **Was Ryan Samsel convicted by a jury?** No. DOJ and the case record identify a bench trial before Judge Jia M. Cobb. **Was he sentenced?** No sentence was imposed. DOJ said sentencing was scheduled for February 4, 2025, but the full pardon issued on January 20, 2025. **Did the pardon erase every factual dispute?** No. A pardon is an act of executive clemency. It does not by itself resolve every factual claim made by prosecutors, the defense, Samsel, witnesses, journalists, or later civil litigants. **Is the 2026 lawsuit already proven?** No. The docket verifies that the complaint was filed. Its substantive claims remain allegations unless admitted, settled, or decided by the court. **Did Samsel enter the Capitol building?** In his January 2025 CBS interview, Samsel said that he did not enter the building. That is preserved as a firsthand statement. The current source set should be reviewed against the complete trial findings and video record before the archive makes a broader independent conclusion. ### Case Nexus and related profiles The criminal case was tried with **James Tate Grant**, **Paul Russell Johnson**, **Stephen Chase Randolph**, and **Jason Benjamin Blythe**. Their records should be compared through the related-profile and shared-document connections. Samsel’s civil complaint also reportedly references **Joseph Randall Biggs** in explaining one of his litigation theories; that assertion remains attributed to the complaint. ### Editorial analysis This archive’s editorial position may discuss Samsel and other J6ers as victims of alleged or documented Biden-era DOJ weaponization, especially when examining prolonged pretrial detention and disputed confinement conditions. That editorial analysis is separate from the sourced procedural record above. The archive does not invent defenses, erase court findings, or treat accusations and media labels as proof of a person’s character. ### Submit records or corrections Readers with native pleadings, transcripts, authenticated interviews, detention records, medical records that may lawfully be published, or provenance-cleared photographs may submit them through the evidence and correction forms. Submissions are reviewed before publication and should identify the original source, date, custody chain, and reuse rights. ### Principal sources - DOJ indictment announcement, August 26, 2021 - DOJ bench-trial verdict announcement, February 2, 2024 - DOJ co-defendant sentencing announcement and Samsel scheduling notice, September 20, 2024 - DOJ Office of the Pardon Attorney certificate-recipient list - CBS New York release interview, January 21, 2025 - *Samsel v. United States of America* docket metadata, June 9, 2026 - Courthouse News report on the civil complaint, June 9, 2026