Proud Boys member sentenced to 6 years in prison for role in Capitol riot, after consultation with judge
MICHAEL KUNZELMANJanuary 24, 2024
A man who stormed the Capitol with other members of the extremist group Proud Boys has been convicted
on
Wednesday to six years in prison after he cursed and insulted the judge who sentenced him.
Marc Bru repeatedly interrupted Chief Justice James Boasberg before handing down the sentence, calling him a clown and a fraudster who “presides over a kangaroo court.” The judge warned Bru that he could be removed from the courtroom if he continued to disrupt the proceedings.
You can give me a hundred years and I would do it all over again, said Bru, who was handcuffed and chained.
That’s the definition of no remorse in my book, the judge said.
Prosecutors describe Bru as one of the least remorseful rioters who attacked the Capitol on January 6, 2021. They say Bru planned an armed uprising, an attack on January 6, 2021, to take over the government in Portland, Oregon.
go,
just weeks after the deadly riot in Washington, DC
He wanted a repeat of Jan. 6, but he suggested this time it would be more violent, prosecutors wrote in a court filing ahead of his sentencing.
Bru represents himself with a lawyer on standby. He has spewed anti-government rhetoric that seems inspired by the sovereign citizen movement. At the start of the hearing, Bru demanded that the judge and a prosecutor hand over five years of their financial records.
The judge gave him a ten-minute break to consult with his standby attorney before the hearing resumed with more interruptions.
I don’t accept any of your terms and conditions, Bru said. You’re a clown and not a judge.
Prosecutors had warned the court that Bru planned to disrupt his sentencing. On Tuesday, he called for a nightly vigil outside the prison where he and other rioters are being held. He told supporters of the defendants detained Jan. 6 that he would try to put on a good show at his sentencing.
Boasberg convicted Bru of seven charges, including two felonies, after hearing testimony without a jury in October.
Prosecutors have recommended a prison sentence of seven years and three months for Bru, a Washington state resident.
Bru appears to be envisioning and planning a real armed uprising, and his comments after his conviction show that he has only become further radicalized and angry since then, they wrote.
Bru disappeared before his trial, skipped two court hearings and ‘defiantly boasted via Twitter that the government should come for him if it wanted him.
About a month later, that happened, the prosecutor added.
Bru represented himself at his trial, but did not defend himself. Instead, he repeatedly stated that he refused to consent to the trial and showed nothing but contempt for the Court and the government, prosecutors wrote.
Bru flew from Portland, Oregon,
gon
to Washington
,DC,
a day before then-president
Donald
Trump’s Stop the Steal rally near the White House. Before Trump’s speech, he marched to the Capitol with dozens of other Proud Boys and was among the first rioters to breach a restricted area near Peace Circle.
Bru grabbed a barricade and pushed it against police officers. He later joined other rioters at the Capitol and entered the Senate Gallery, where he made a hand gesture associated with the Proud Boys as he posed for selfie photos. He spent about 13 minutes in the building.
Several weeks after the riot, Bru exchanged text messages with a friend about buying gas masks in bulk. He also texted a Proud Boys recruit and indicated he wanted to repeat the violence and lawlessness of Jan. 6 in Portland to take over local government, prosecutors said.
In fact, these text messages indicate that Bru’s main takeaway from Jan. 6 is that he was not violent enough or committed enough to overthrowing the government, prosecutors wrote. In other words, in the aftermath of January 6, Bru plotted an armed uprising without feeling any remorse.
The FBI initially arrested Bru in March 2021 in Vancouver, Washington.
ington.
After his pretrial release, Bru was charged with separate drunk driving offenses in Idaho and Montana.
In July, Bru was secretly living in Montana when a drunk driver hit his car. Police officers responding to the collision arrested Bru on a warrant stemming from his failure to appear in court. Since his rearrest and trial, he has continued to spread disinformation from prison, prosecutors said.
In any case, he seems to be becoming increasingly challenging and radical, they wrote.
More than 1,200 people have been charged with crimes related to the Capitol riot. About 900 have pleaded guilty or been convicted after trials. More than 750 people have been convicted, with roughly two-thirds receiving prison sentences, according to data compiled by the Associated Press.
Fernando Dowling is an author and political journalist who writes for 24 News Globe. He has a deep understanding of the political landscape and a passion for analyzing the latest political trends and news.