A federal judge Tuesday found a Washington man and member of the Proud Boys organization who stormed the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, guilty of two felony and five misdemeanor charges.
Following a one-day trial in federal court in Washington, D.C., Marc Anthony Bru, 43, of Vancouver, was found guilty of obstruction of an official proceeding and civil disorder, and entering and remaining in a restricted building or grounds, disorderly and disruptive conduct, entering and remaining in a gallery of Congress, disorderly conduct in a Capitol building and parading, demonstrating or picketing in a Capitol building.
Bru marched with other Proud Boys to the nation’s Capitol building, trampled over downed barricades and entered the Capitol’s West Plaza, where he angrily confronted riot gear-clad police “attempting to hold the mob at bay,” according to the prosecutors.
When police tried to use bike-rack barricades to force the mob back, Bru charged the barricades, grabbed one and “used his entire body weight” to prevent police from blocking off the area, according to prosecutors.
Bru entered the Capitol through an emergency exit and made his way to the evacuated Senate chamber, where he took celebratory pictures in the gallery, according to prosecutors.
About seven weeks later, Bru sent an encrypted message to an aspiring Proud Boy in which he detailed his plans to conduct an armed insurrection against Oregon’s government modeled after the Jan. 6 Capitol riot, according to prosecutors.
Bru was arrested March 30, 2021, in Vancouver.
U.S. District of Columbia’s Chief Judge James E. Boasberg found Bru guilty of the felony and misdemeanor charges.
The judge had barred Bru from raising the defense that former President Donald Trump authorized his actions that January day, or that he enjoyed a right to protest inside the Capitol building.
The interior of the Capitol is a “nonpublic forum” where the government may limit First Amendment activities as long as the restrictions are reasonable and not based on viewpoint, the judge said. On Jan. 6, 2021, the government restrictions were tailored to “safeguard the electoral-certification progress,” and were reasonable, the judge ruled.
Bru is scheduled to be sentenced on Jan. 8.
Bru is one of more than 1,100 people who have been charged in the Capitol breach.
The FBI learned of Bru’s presence largely through tips, according to a federal affidavit. Someone contacted the FBI National Threat Operations Center to report that Bru had traveled to the nation’s capital and that Bru had said he was headed there to “witness history in the making,” a federal affidavit said.
The tipster also alerted the FBI to video from Bru’s Facebook page that showed him at or near the Capitol that day, according to the affidavit. The FBI also included in the affidavit photos that were shared on the Twitter account of the Pacific Northwest Resistance, described as an an anti-fascist movement, which showed Bru aiming a handgun in his right hand while flashing the “OK” symbol, and another photo of Bru with an overlay of a yellow-and-black Proud Boy logo. It’s unclear when those photos were taken.
