Dana Jean Bell went to Capitol Hill on Jan. 6, 2021, and assaulted countless police officers. We know this for certain because she was captured on camera committing her crimes, to which she ultimately pleaded guilty. Last week, a federal district court judge sentenced Bell to 17 months in prison.

What struck me as especially notable about these developments, however, was what the defendant and her lawyer said ahead of her sentencing. NBC News reported:

Bell, according to her defense team, believed it was “her civil and patriotic duty to answer Trump’s call” on Jan. 6. But they say she has now seen the light. In a psychiatric evaluation her lawyer filed in court, a doctor said Bell now realizes she was “duped” by “President Donald Trump’s lies and manipulation” and “has also come to realize former President Trump did lose the 2020 election and he has used all of his followers including herself for his own gain.”

“Dana regrets ever having responded to Trump’s call,” her lawyer added.

The timing of this story stood out for me. The former president — whose career seemingly ended on Jan. 6 — has spent years trying to rewrite the story of the insurrectionist riot, and those efforts are ongoing. As recently as last week, for example, the Republican candidate compared Jan. 6 criminals to victims of Japanese internment camps.

The same day, the GOP nominee also amplified a conspiracy theory that “the government staged a riot to cover up the fact that they certified a fraudulent election.”

A day earlier, Trump told a Univision town hall audience that there was “nothing done wrong” during the assault on the Capitol, while using the word “we” in reference to the insurrectionist rioters who attacked at his behest.

But as Trump moves closer to a possible return to the White House, it’s Dana Jean Bell who’s moving to a federal penitentiary. The man who lied will likely be rewarded with millions of votes, while the woman who was “duped” by those lies will be an inmate in a prison cell.

He expects to get power, while she pays a price.

As the American electorate wonders whether to put their trust in an erratic criminal running on an authoritarian platform, I feel like Bell’s story has some allegorical value.

In the meantime, Kamala Harris’ campaign appears eager to remind voters about Trump’s willingness to use a violent mob in order to try to overturn the results of an election he lost.

Over the weekend, after Trump defended Jan. 6 as a “day of love,” the Democratic campaign released an ad called, “The Oath I Took,” featuring former Capitol Police Sgt. Aquilino Gonell slamming the former president’s radical and dangerous tactics.

According to a press statement from the Harris campaign, the ad will air in battleground states “in markets that reach Latino voters and will have an emphasis on high-viewership events and shows.”