TAMPA, Fla. (WFLA) — Retired Green Beret and former Oath Keeper Jeremy Brown was sentenced to seven years in prison on charges leveled after a search connected to his alleged involvement in the Jan. 6 capitol riot.
A federal jury convicted Brown, 48, in December of five felonies and one misdemeanor involving two illegal guns and two hand grenades, and possession of a classified document. The items were found during a search last year of his Tampa property.
Brown was acquitted of four other document possession-related charges.
U.S. District Judge Susan Bucklew called Brown’s military service extraordinary but questioned his remorse as she handed down the 87-month sentence.
“You’ve absolutely accepted no responsibility for what you’ve done in this case,” Bucklew said. “And you were defiant to the end. You essentially, in many ways, held yourself above the law.”
Brown asked for time served, currently totaling 17 months. Several Brown supporters wrote letters on his behalf, and his mother Lisa was one of three who asked for leniency during the hearing.
“This man right there is no criminal,” Brown’s mother said. “He’s a good man.”
At one point, she turned to the prosecution team and admonished them for not allowing Brown to visit her while she was hospitalized.
“I was denied that by you people,” Lisa Brown said with a frustrated tone while pointing her finger at the prosecution. “I almost died.”
After the hearing, she said the sentence was not fair.
“What happened today is not justice,” she said. “They lied.”
Assistant U.S. Attorney Daniel Marcet argued Brown lied on the stand and deserved the higher end of the sentencing guideline of 87 to 108 months.
“The defendant looked the jury in the eye and lied and lied and lied,” Marcet said.
Marcet told the court the grenades put the community where Brown lived in danger.
Brown also turned toward the prosecution team during the hearing and glared at them while he criticized their case.
“These prosecutors have made false claims to this court,” Brown said. “I am honorably retired. There is nothing honorable about the Department of Justice’s fraud on this court.”
In a news release, FBI Tampa Special Agent David Walker said Brown’s case shows how the agency is protecting the country.
“The communities we serve can be assured by investigations such as this that the FBI and its law enforcement partners are working diligently and tirelessly to support the mission of protecting the American people and upholding the United States Constitution,” Walker said.
Brown is expected to be tried in Washington, D.C. at a later date for allegedly trespassing on Capitol grounds on Jan. 6. He is not accused of entering the building.
According to Brown, the Oath Keepers were in Washington to provide security for the Stop the Steal rally that took place before the siege.
In an interview with 8 On Your Side from the Pinellas County Jail, Brown said he told fellow Oath Keepers “don’t go in there” before they entered the Capitol.
Brown claims the FBI tried to recruit him to provide inside information about the Oath Keepers during a meeting in Ybor City in early December 2020, about a month before the riot.
Why are so many Tampa Bay residents accused in Jan. 6 riot?
Brown also claims he was targeted by the feds for the social media remarks he made that were critical of the Jan. 6 investigation.
The U.S. Capitol siege that stalled the certification of the presidential election ended with five deaths and about 150 injuries.
According to the George Washington University Program on Extremism, 98 of the nearly 900 defendants are from Florida. About 40 percent are from the Bay Area.
Pinellas County has the highest number of local defendants with 10, tying for third in cases by county. The others in the top four are densely populated Los Angeles and Orange Counties in California and Illinois’ Cook County, where Chicago is located.
