Judge reduces prison sentence for Capitol rioter who berated and insulted him

WASHINGTON (AP) — A federal judge on Friday imposed a one-year reduction in a prison sentence for a man who stormed the U.S. Capitol and then engaged in a pattern of disruptive courtroom behavior, including berating and insulting the judge.

Marc Bru complained about his prison conditions but refrained from hurling any more insults at Chief Judge James Boasberg, who resentenced him to five years in prison. Bru is one of the beneficiaries of a U.S. Supreme Court ruling that limited the government’s use of a federal obstruction law.

Bru, 44, joined the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol with fellow members of the Proud Boys extremist group. He grabbed a barricade and shoved it against police officers. He later joined other rioters inside the Capitol and entered the Senate gallery, where he flashed a hand gesture associated with the Proud Boys.

Bru wasn’t one of the most violent rioters at the Capitol, but his conduct after the Jan. 6, 2021, riot was “the worst I think I’ve seen of anyone,” the judge said.

“In my 22 years as a judge, I’ve never seen a defendant say the things he said at sentencing,” Boasberg said.

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At his initial sentencing hearing in January, Bru repeatedly interrupted Boasberg and called him a “clown” and a “fraud” presiding over a “kangaroo court.” He referred to a prosecutor as “despicable and repugnant.”

“You can give me 100 years and I’d do it all over again,” said Bru, who has represented himself with an attorney on standby.

On Friday, Bru initially deferred to his lawyer and declined to address the court before Boasberg announced his sentence. But he spoke up when the judge asked if he had any objections to his new sentence, a routine question at the end of sentencings.

Bru, who has been incarcerated for 15 months in several different facilities, said his experience behind bars has been an “eye-opener to the conditions and to the realities that lie within the walls.”

“Putting me in that system longer, it is not that much of a deterrent,” he said. “It doesn’t help.”

More than 1,500 people have been charged with crimes stemming from the Jan. 6 attack by a mob of Donald Trump supporters. President-elect Trump has vowed to pardon rioters, whom he has called “patriots” and “hostages.”

Some rioters have cited Trump’s campaign rhetoric in asking judges to pause their cases. Nobody mentioned the possibility of pardons during Bru’s resentencing.

Boasberg convicted Bru of seven charges, including two felonies, after hearing trial testimony without a jury last year.

Bru is one of a handful of Jan. 6 defendants to be resentenced after a Supreme Court ruling in June led to the dismissal of convictions on a felony obstruction charge. The high court ruled 6-3 that a charge of obstructing an official proceeding must include proof that a defendant tried to tamper with or destroy documents — a distinction that applies to few Jan. 6 criminal cases.

Vacating Bru’s obstruction conviction reduced his recommended range for a prison sentence — from between 70 and 87 months to between 18 and 24 months.

Justice Department prosecutor Madison Mumma argued that Bru’s conduct during and after the riot still merits a six-year sentence.

“I don’t think anything has changed,” Mumma said.

Prosecutors said Bru, a Washington state resident, planned for an armed insurrection — a “January 6 2.0” attack — to take over the government in Portland, Oregon, several weeks after the Capitol riot.

After his pretrial release, Bru was charged with separate drunken driving-related offenses in Idaho and Montana. He absconded before his trial, skipped two court hearings and “defiantly boasted via Twitter that the government would have to come get him if it wanted him,” according to prosecutors.

Bru represented himself at his bench trial but didn’t present a defense. Instead, he repeatedly proclaimed that he refused to “consent” to the trial and “showed nothing but contempt for the Court and the government,” prosecutors wrote.

Two days before his January sentencing hearing, Bru said he intended to “command” the U.S. Marshals Service to arrest Boasberg and a prosecutor for “human trafficking,” according to prosecutors.

Also on Friday, a former Maryland police officer who hurled a smoke bomb and other objects at police officers guarding a tunnel entrance during the Capitol riot was sentenced to 18 months in prison.

Justin Lee, who applied to join the Montgomery County Police Department several months after he participated in the Jan. 6 attack, declined to address the court before U.S. District Judge Trevor McFadden sentenced him.

The judge told Lee that he compounded his “egregious” actions at the Capitol by lying about his conduct during his trial testimony earlier this year. McFadden said it was “beyond comprehension” that Lee blamed police for violence on Jan. 6.

“You dishonored yourself and your former office by your testimony at trial,” the judge said.

In August, the judge convicted Lee of two felonies and three misdemeanors after a trial without a jury. The police department suspended Lee without pay after his arrest last year and fired him last month, according to a department spokeswoman.