Inset: Ryan Nichols (Harrison County Sheriff’s Office). Background: Ryan Nichols at the U.S. Capitol during the Jan. 6 riot (United States House Select Committee).
A Texas man who participated in the Jan. 6 Capitol riot and was later pardoned by President Donald Trump has once again avoided jail. Ryan Nichols accepted a plea deal in a separate harassment case after being accused of threatening a churchgoer with a firearm.
Nichols, 36, entered a no-contest plea Thursday, Oct. 29, to a harassment charge stemming from a series of social media incidents reported between March 18 and April 8, according to online court records.
Under the agreement, prosecutors dismissed a deadly conduct charge alleging that Nichols displayed a pistol and confronted a man over a “prior disagreement” in a Harleton church parking lot, the Longview News-Journal reports. Nichols was sentenced to 12 months of probation and 96 hours of community service.
“He pled no contest to a harassment case, and we took into consideration that deadly conduct,” Harrison County Assistant District Attorney Charlotte Reeves, who handled the prosecution, told the newspaper.
Nichols previously said he had “completely changed” since the 2021 attack on the U.S. Capitol, where he brought weapons and assaulted members of the U.S. Capitol Police, according to a Justice Department complaint.
Authorities’ account of the later confrontation painted a different picture.
“Nichols confronted a subject … and whenever the subject attempted to leave and de-escalate the situation Nichols continued to confront him,” the Harrison County Sheriff’s Office said in a press release. “The victim stated that they turned away from Nichols and attempted to usher his family toward their vehicle while asking Nichols to go to his own vehicle and leave.”
Nichols, who launched a congressional campaign before ending his bid in 2025, allegedly kept confronting the man as he loaded his family into a vehicle and repeatedly asked Nichols “to leave him alone.”
The man later told police that Nichols “raised his shirt up to display a firearm” and put his hand on the weapon’s grip in a “threatening manner,” causing him to fear “imminent serious bodily injury,” according to the sheriff’s office.
“He gripped it completely,” Harrison County Sheriff B.J. Fletcher told local ABC affiliate KLTV. “He did more than enough gesture to put you in fear of your life. That constitutes deadly conduct.”
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Fletcher said the man and his family were “obviously scared of him” and believed Nichols might escalate the encounter.
The sheriff told KLTV that the man was unarmed and “holding a Bible.” The confrontation ended after a bystander intervened, he said.
“[The victim] had finished putting his kid in the backseat,” Fletcher recalled. “Another subject that watched this happen, when the gunplay started, he got out and came over and got between them and told them this isn’t something that needs to happen here. And they left.”
Nichols was already the subject of a harassment warrant when authorities arrested him in connection with the deadly conduct allegation. He was one of roughly 1,500 Jan. 6 defendants pardoned by Trump on Jan. 20, 2025, the first day of the president’s second term, after being convicted in connection with the Capitol attack.
“I am the person to blame for what happened that day,” Nichols said in 2023 while pleading guilty to felony charges of obstructing an official proceeding and assaulting officers carrying out their duties, according to NBC News.
Nichols has described his conduct during the riot as a “bad choice” and said he was “very sorry” for it.
On Jan. 6, 2026, he urged people to “think through every decision,” according to local CBS affiliate KYTX.
“Do not let emotion override judgment,” Nichols said. “You were pardoned once. There are no guarantees beyond that.”
When asked what led to last week’s plea agreement, Reeves told the News-Journal, “It’s something they requested.”
In addition to probation and community service, Nichols must pay a $500 probated fine and avoid contact with the “alleged victims” in both cases. He is also prohibited from drinking alcohol or using illegal substances, must not commit crimes in any state and is subject to random urinalysis, among other conditions.
The post Pardoned Jan. 6 rioter avoids jail again after allegedly using gun to threaten Bible-holding churchgoer who was “putting his kid” in a car first appeared on Law & Crime.
