WASHINGTON (AP) — A person who stormed the U.S. Capitol with fellow Proud Boys extremist group members was sentenced on Wednesday to 6 years in jail after he berated and insulted the choose who punished him.
Marc Bru repeatedly interrupted Chief Choose James Boasberg earlier than he handed down the sentence, calling him a “clown” and a “fraud” presiding over a “kangaroo court docket.” The choose warned Bru that he may very well be kicked out of the courtroom if he continued to disrupt the proceedings.
“You can provide me 100 years and I might do it yet again,” stated Bru, who was handcuffed and shackled.
“That is the definition of no regret in my ebook,” the choose stated.
Prosecutors described Bru as one of many least remorseful rioters who assaulted the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. They are saying Bru deliberate for an armed revolt — a “January 6 2.0” assault — to take over the federal government in Portland, Oregon, a number of weeks after the lethal riot in Washington, D.C.
“He wished a repeat of January 6, solely he implied this time could be extra violent,” prosecutors wrote in a court filing forward of his sentencing.
Bru has been representing himself with an lawyer on standby. He has spewed anti-government rhetoric that seems to be impressed by the sovereign citizen motion. In the beginning of the listening to, Bru demanded that the choose and a prosecutor flip over 5 years of their monetary information.
The choose gave him a 10-minute break to confer along with his standby lawyer earlier than the listening to resumed with extra interruptions.
“I do not settle for any of your phrases and situations,” Bru stated. “You are a clown and never a choose.”
Prosecutors had warned the court docket that Bru meant to disrupt his sentencing. On Tuesday, he referred to as in to a nightly vigil exterior the jail the place he and different rioters are being held. He informed supporters of the detained Jan. 6 defendants that he would “attempt to placed on an excellent present” at his sentencing.
Boasberg convicted Bru of seven costs, together with two felonies, after listening to trial testimony and not using a jury in October.
Prosecutors advisable a jail sentence of seven years and three months for Bru, a resident of Washington state.
“Bru seems to have envisioned and been planning for a real armed revolt, and from his post-conviction feedback, he seems solely to have turn out to be additional radicalized and indignant since then,” they wrote.
Bru absconded earlier than his trial, skipped two court docket hearings and “defiantly boasted by way of Twitter that the federal government must come get him if it wished him.”
“Roughly a month later, it did,” prosecutors added.
Bru represented himself at his bench trial however did not current a protection. As an alternative, he repeatedly proclaimed that he refused to “consent” to the trial and “confirmed nothing however contempt for the Court docket and the federal government,” prosecutors wrote.
Bru flew from Portland, Oregon to Washington a day earlier than then-President Donald Trump’s “Cease the Steal” rally close to the White Home. Earlier than Trump’s speech, he joined dozens of different Proud Boys in marching to the Capitol and was one of many first rioters to breach a restricted space close to Peace Circle.
Bru grabbed a barricade and shoved it towards law enforcement officials. He later joined different rioters contained in the Capitol and entered the Senate gallery, the place he flashed a hand gesture related to the Proud Boys as he posed for selfie images. He spent roughly 13 minutes contained in the constructing.
A number of weeks after the riot, Bru exchanged textual content messages with a good friend about shopping for fuel masks in bulk. He additionally texted a Proud Boys recruit and indicated that he wished to “repeat the violence and lawlessness of January 6 in Portland as a way to take over the native authorities,” prosecutors stated.
“The truth is, these textual content messages point out that Bru’s chief takeaway from January 6 is that it was not violent sufficient or not sufficiently devoted to overthrowing the federal government,” prosecutors wrote. “In different phrases, within the aftermath of January 6, Bru was plotting an armed revolt, not feeling remorseful.”
The FBI initially arrested Bru in March 2021 in Vancouver, Washington. After his pretrial launch, Bru was charged with separate drunken driving-related offenses in Idaho and Montana.
In July, Bru was secretly dwelling in Montana when a drunken driver hit his automobile. Law enforcement officials who responded to the collision arrested Bru on a warrant stemming from his failure to look in court docket earlier than trial. He has “continued to spew disinformation” from jail since his re-arrest and trial, prosecutors stated.
“If something, he seems to be rising extra defiant and radicalized,” they wrote.
Greater than 1,200 folks have been charged with Capitol riot-related crimes. About 900 have pleaded responsible or been convicted after trials. Over 750 have been sentenced, with roughly two-thirds receiving some time period of imprisonment, in keeping with data compiled by The Associated Press.
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