A federal judge reduced the prison sentence of a convicted Jan. 6 rioter and Proud Boy member from Washington state who had previously berated and insulted him during proceedings.
Marc Anthony Bru, 44, had his prison sentence reduced by one year after a US Supreme Court decision limited the government’s use of a federal obstruction law.
In January, Chief U.S. District Chief Judge James E. Boasberg sentenced Bru to 72 months — or six years — in prison and 36 months of supervised release, as well as a $7,946 fine and $2,000 in restitution.
Bru was found guilty of obstruction, civil disorder, and five misdemeanor charges following a bench trial before Boasberg on October 3, 2023.
The resentencing comes after Bru disrupted the courtroom, insulting Boasberg, a Barack Obama appointee, during his initial sentencing. Bru did not repeat similar insults at Friday’s hearing, but he did tell Boasberg that adding more time to his sentence “is not that much of a deterrent,” according to the Associated Press.
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In the government’s supplemental sentencing memorandum, prosecutors argue that the same 72 months of imprisonment that Bru received initially is appropriate punishment for a man who rioted at the Capitol and planned to lead an armed insurgency to take over the government in Portland, Oregon. They also claimed he fled his Jan. 6 case while it was still pending trial.
Bru attempted to mock the trial proceedings, according to prosecutors. After his conviction, he spread misinformation, portraying himself as a victim of political persecution and making bombastic, threatening statements in public forums, they said.
“Most alarmingly, in the two days before his sentencing hearing, Bru stated that he intended to ‘command’ the U.S. Marshals to arrest Chief Judge James E. Boasberg and the undersigned lead prosecutor for ‘human trafficking’ at his sentencing if they did not comply with his demands,” according to the prosecutors.
And he warned that if the Speaker of the House and the then-former President didn’t ‘f—ing pull the trigger in a very short amount of time,’ he would start a nationwide prison riot.”
The statements prompted the court to summon additional U.S. Marshals for security during his first sentencing hearing. Bru was disrespectful during the hearing, repeatedly interrupting the government and the Court, according to officials.
He accused the Court of conducting an illegal, fraudulent “f—ing kangaroo court” and referred to Boasberg as a “clown.”
He accused the government of causing the two DUIs he received while on pretrial release. And he described the undersigned lead prosecutor as “despicable and repugnant.”
When given the opportunity to speak, Bru defiantly and proudly declared, “You can give me a hundred years, and I would do it all over again.”
In his sentencing memo, Bru’s public defender, Ben W. Muse, requested that the Court follow the six-to-12-month imprisonment guidelines, claiming that Bru has no criminal history and was not violent that day.
“He went to the Capitol grounds on January 6 to protest the results of the presidential election that he believed were secured through fraud,” according to Muse.
Muse claimed he stood in the crowd on West Plaza and shouted at the cops. He briefly resisted law enforcement’s efforts to force the growing crowd back from the Capitol with bike racks, leaning against the advancing rack for several seconds.
Then he followed other protesters through open doors into the Capitol, where he remained for fifteen minutes.
“In sum, Bru engaged in civil disobedience in a boisterous but non-violent manner,” according to Muse.
As he has stated, he would do so again because he truly believed President Trump and his supporters’ claims that the presidential election was ‘rigged,’ and the survival of democracy was at stake. His actions should be judged for what they are, not compared to those of other violent bad actors.”
Muse also stated that his actions following his arrest “frustrated the criminal process at several points,” primarily because he felt he and other Jan. 6 defendants were being treated differently as a class than other protesters who have engaged in disruptive acts of civil disobedience at the Capitol or in various cities across the country.
However, given this, the government contends that his behavior was not deserving of the Court’s 72-month sentence.
He considers himself a “sovereign citizen” and allegedly told U.S. District Chief Judge James Boasberg and federal prosecutors at the end of his bench trial that they were “outside of his jurisdiction” and that the court had committed “war crimes” against him as well as “trafficked” him.
