Current:Home > InvestProud Boys member sentenced to 6 years in prison for Capitol riot role after berating judge -MarketStream
Proud Boys member sentenced to 6 years in prison for Capitol riot role after berating judge
View
Date:2025-04-17 06:55:24
WASHINGTON (AP) — A man who stormed the U.S. Capitol with fellow Proud Boys extremist group members was sentenced on Wednesday to six years in prison after he berated and insulted the judge who punished him.
Marc Bru repeatedly interrupted Chief Judge James Boasberg before he handed down the sentence, calling him a “clown” and a “fraud” presiding over a “kangaroo court.” The judge warned Bru that he could be kicked out of the courtroom if he continued to disrupt the proceedings.
“You can give me 100 years and I’d do it all over again,” said Bru, who was handcuffed and shackled.
“That’s the definition of no remorse in my book,” the judge said.
Prosecutors described Bru as one of the least remorseful rioters who assaulted the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. They say Bru planned for an armed insurrection — a “January 6 2.0” attack — to take over the government in Portland, Oregon, several weeks after the deadly riot in Washington, D.C.
“He wanted a repeat of January 6, only he implied this time would be more violent,” prosecutors wrote in a court filing ahead of his sentencing.
Bru has been representing himself with an attorney on standby. He has spewed anti-government rhetoric that appears to be inspired by the sovereign citizen movement. At the start of the hearing, Bru demanded that the judge and a prosecutor turn over five years of their financial records.
The judge gave him a 10-minute break to confer with his standby lawyer 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 intended to disrupt his sentencing. On Tuesday, he called in to a nightly vigil outside the jail where he and other rioters are being held. He told supporters of the detained Jan. 6 defendants that he would “try to put on a good show” at his sentencing.
Boasberg convicted Bru of seven charges, including two felonies, after hearing trial testimony without a jury in October.
Prosecutors recommended a prison sentence of seven years and three months for Bru, a resident of Washington state.
“Bru appears to have envisioned and been planning for a true armed insurrection, and from his post-conviction comments, he appears only to have become further radicalized and angry since then,” they wrote.
Bru 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.”
“Approximately a month later, it did,” prosecutors added.
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.
Bru flew from Portland, Oregon to Washington a day before then-President Donald Trump’s “Stop the Steal” rally near the White House. Before Trump’s speech, he joined dozens of other Proud Boys in marching to the Capitol and was one of the first rioters to breach a restricted area near Peace Circle.
Bru 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 as he posed for selfie photos. He spent roughly 13 minutes inside 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 that he wanted to “repeat the violence and lawlessness of January 6 in Portland in order to take over the local government,” prosecutors said.
“In fact, those text messages indicate that Bru’s chief takeaway from January 6 is that it was not violent enough or not sufficiently dedicated to overthrowing the government,” prosecutors wrote. “In other words, in the aftermath of January 6, Bru was plotting an armed insurrection, not feeling remorseful.”
The FBI initially arrested Bru in March 2021 in Vancouver, Washington. After his pretrial release, Bru was charged with separate drunken driving-related offenses in Idaho and Montana.
In July, Bru was secretly living in Montana when a drunken driver hit his car. Police officers who responded to the collision arrested Bru on a warrant stemming from his failure to appear in court before trial. He has “continued to spew disinformation” from jail since his re-arrest and trial, prosecutors said.
“If anything, he appears to be growing more defiant and radicalized,” they wrote.
More than 1,200 people have been charged with Capitol riot-related crimes. About 900 have pleaded guilty or been convicted after trials. Over 750 have been sentenced, with roughly two-thirds receiving some term of imprisonment, according to data compiled by The Associated Press.
veryGood! (7)
Related
- What to watch: O Jolie night
- How does air quality affect our health? Doctors explain the potential impacts
- 66 clinics stopped providing abortions in the 100 days since Roe fell
- House GOP rules vote on gas stoves goes up in flames
- The Daily Money: Disney+ wants your dollars
- Two men dead after small plane crashes in western New York
- 'Where is humanity?' ask the helpless doctors of Ethiopia's embattled Tigray region
- The fearless midwives of Pakistan: In the face of floods, they do not give up
- Sonya Massey's father decries possible release of former deputy charged with her death
- Florida nursing homes evacuated 1000s before Ian hit. Some weathered the storm
Ranking
- Why Sean "Diddy" Combs Is Being Given a Laptop in Jail Amid Witness Intimidation Fears
- David Moinina Sengeh: The sore problem of prosthetic limbs
- Every Must-See Moment From King Charles III and Queen Camilla’s Coronation
- Barnard College will offer abortion pills for students
- Off the Grid: Sally breaks down USA TODAY's daily crossword puzzle, Triathlon
- 8 Answers to the Judge’s Climate Change Questions in Cities vs. Fossil Fuels Case
- The hidden faces of hunger in America
- Katy Perry Responds After Video of Her Searching for Her Seat at King Charles III's Coronation Goes Viral
Recommendation
Whoopi Goldberg is delightfully vile as Miss Hannigan in ‘Annie’ stage return
Kirsten Gillibrand on Climate Change: Where the Candidate Stands
Princess Charlotte and Prince George Make Adorable Appearance at King Charles III's Coronation Concert
For stomach pain and other IBS symptoms, new apps can bring relief
The 401(k) millionaires club keeps growing. We'll tell you how to join.
New Mexico’s Biggest Power Plant Sticks with Coal. Partly. For Now.
Conservatives' standoff with McCarthy brings House to a halt for second day
Red Cross Turns to Climate Attribution Science to Prepare for Disasters Ahead