Former Air Force officer gets prison term for Capitol attack

WASHINGTON — A retired Air Force officer who stormed the U.S. Capitol wearing struggle equipment and carried zip-tie handcuffs into the Senate gallery was once sentenced on Friday to 2 years in prison.

Larry Brock joined different rioters at the Senate flooring handiest mins after then-Vice President Mike Pence, senators and their personnel evacuated the chamber to flee the mob attacking the construction on Jan. 6, 2021.

U.S. District Judge John Bates additionally sentenced Brock to 2 years of supervised unencumber after his prison term and ordered him to accomplish 100 hours of group provider. Brock, who declined to talk in court docket ahead of the pass judgement on imposed his sentence, stays unfastened till he should report back to prison at a date to be decided.

Prosecutors had beneficial a sentence of 5 years in prison adopted via 3 years of supervised unencumber.

Bates convicted Brock in November after a tribulation and not using a jury. The pass judgement on mentioned Brock expressed “very troubling” and violent rhetoric ahead of the Jan. 6 revolt. The pass judgement on learn aloud a number of of Brock’s social media postings calling it “really pretty astounding” {that a} former high-ranking army officer expressed the ones phrases.

“That’s chilling stuff, and it does reflect a purpose to stop the certification of the election,” Bates mentioned.

Brock believed baseless conspiracy theories that the 2020 presidential election was once stolen from Republican incumbent Donald Trump, prosecutors mentioned.

“When we get to the bottom of this conspiracy we need to execute the traitors that are trying to steal the election, and that includes the leaders of the media and social media aiding and abetting the coup plotters,” Brock wrote in a Nov. 9. 2020, post on Facebook.

In a Facebook message to another user on Christmas Eve, Brock outlined what he called a “plan of action if Congress fails to act” on Jan. 6. One of the “main tasks” in his plan was once to “seize all Democratic politicians and Biden key staff and select Republicans.”

“Begin interrogations the use of measures we used on al-Qaida to achieve proof at the coup,” he wrote.

Brock, a Texas native who lived in the Dallas area, flew combat missions in Afghanistan before retiring from the Air Force as a lieutenant colonel.

His “plan of action” also called for a “general pardon for all crimes up to and including murder of those restoring the Constitution and putting down the Democratic Insurrection.”

“Do not kill LEO unless necessary,” he wrote, apparently referring to law enforcement officers.

Brock didn’t engage in any violence on Jan. 6, but prosecutors said his behavior was “disturbingly premediated.”

“Had the Senate Gallery not been emptied minutes before, Brock could have come face-to-face with the politicians he had fantasized about seizing and interrogating,” they wrote in a court filing.

Bates convicted Brock of all six counts in his indictment, including obstruction of an official proceeding, the Jan. 6 joint session of Congress for certifying President Joe Biden’s electoral victory, The obstruction charge is a felony; the other five counts are misdemeanors.

Defense attorney Charles Burnham said it is “inconceivable that (Brock) was motivated by anything other than genuine concern for democracy.”

“If Mr. Brock was sincerely motivated by high ideals, it significantly reduces his culpability even if the Court should privately disagree with his view,” Burnham wrote in a court filing.

Brock attended the “Stop the Steal” rally where Trump addressed a crowd of supporters on Jan. 6. He was wearing a helmet and tactical vest when he joined the mob that attacked the Capitol. He entered the building through Senate wing doors roughly 12 minutes after other rioters initially breached them.

On the floor near the East Rotunda stairs, Brock picked up a discarded pair of zip-tie handcuffs. He held the “flex-cuffs” in his right hand in the Senate gallery. On the Senate floor, he examined paperwork on senators’ desks.

“This was consistent with Brock’s stated overall mission on January 6, which was intelligence gathering to stop the certification and the transfer of power,” prosecutors wrote.

Brock graduated from the Air Force Academy in 1989. He was on active duty until 1998 and served in the reserves until 2014.

In a letter to the judge, a retired Air Force major general praised Brock’s military service. The major general, whose name was redacted from public court filings, said Brock risked his life to protect U.S. forces from a Taliban attack, flying below mountain peaks into a valley “saturated with enemy forces.”

“The consequence thwarted enemy advances on U.S. body of workers, stored U.S. lives and defused an ever-escalating scenario for the forces at that far off base in Afghanistan,” the foremost basic wrote.

Brock was once hired as a business airline pilot on Jan. 6. His attorney mentioned the Federal Aviation Administration revoked Brock’s licenses after his January 2021 arrest.

Approximately 1,000 other folks were charged with federal crimes associated with the Jan. 6 revolt. More than 400 of them were sentenced, with over part getting phrases of imprisonment starting from seven days to ten years.