Inset: Ryan Nichols (Harrison County Sheriff’s Office). Background: Nichols at the U.S. Capitol during the Jan. 6 riot (United States House Select Committee).
Ryan Nichols, a Texas participant in the Jan. 6 Capitol riot, has once again avoided jail after accepting a plea deal in a separate case involving social media harassment. The agreement came after he was accused of threatening a churchgoer with a firearm following his pardon by President Donald Trump.
Nichols, 36, pleaded no contest 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 while confronting and threatening a man over a “prior disagreement” in a church parking lot in Harleton, the Longview News-Journal reports. Nichols was sentenced to 12 months of probation and ordered to perform 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, when he brought weapons to Washington and assaulted members of the U.S. Capitol Police, according to a Justice Department complaint.
The allegations in Harrison County, however, 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 it in 2025, allegedly continued the confrontation as the man loaded his family into a vehicle and repeatedly told Nichols “to leave him alone.”
The victim told police that Nichols then “raised his shirt up to display a firearm” and put his hand on the grip in a “threatening manner,” causing the man 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.”
Fletcher said the victim and his family were “obviously scared of him” and believed Nichols intended to escalate the encounter.
The sheriff told KLTV that the victim was unarmed and “holding a Bible.” A bystander ultimately intervened and helped calm the situation, Fletcher 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 he was arrested in the deadly conduct case. 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 for their roles in the Capitol attack.
In 2023, while pleading guilty to felony charges of obstructing an official proceeding and assaulting officers performing their duties, Nichols said, “I am the person to blame for what happened that day,” according to NBC News.
He has also described his conduct during the riot as a “bad choice” and said he was “very sorry for” it.
On Jan. 6, 2026, Nichols 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.”
Asked why prosecutors agreed to the plea arrangement, Reeves told the News-Journal, “It’s something they requested.”
Nichols must pay a $500 probated fine and have no contact with the “alleged victims” in either case, in addition to probation and community service. He is also barred from consuming alcohol or illegal substances and from committing crimes in any state, and he must submit to random urinalysis, among other requirements.
The post Pardoned Jan. 6 rioter dodges jail yet again after allegedly using gun to threaten churchgoer holding bible and ‘putting his kid’ in car first appeared on Law & Crime.