Jailed Jan. 6 Convict Receives Early Release at Resentencing

An image from body camera video shows Brian Mock outside the U.S. Capitol in Washington on Jan. 6, 2021. U.S. Department of Justice via The Epoch Times

A Minnesota man whose conviction of obstructing an official proceeding on Jan. 6, 2021, was recently vacated due to a U.S. Supreme Court ruling that saw his prison term ended on Jan. 3.

U.S. District Judge Judge James Boasberg during a hearing in Washington resentenced Brian Mock to time served, according to the court docket.

Boasberg also imposed 24 months of supervised release on Mock, the same period of supervised release as originally handed down.

The same judge on Feb. 22, 2024, sentenced Mock to 33 months in prison, after finding him guilty on 11 counts, including assaulting, resisting, or impeding law enforcement officers in relation to the Jan. 6, 2021, breach of the U.S. Capitol. Prosecutors had asked for nine years in prison, pointing to video footage that showed Mock assaulting officers outside the building.

After Mock appealed, the Supreme Court narrowed the way prosecutors can use a federal law that bars obstructing an official proceeding, prompting an appeals court to vacate that conviction for Mock and others.

The appeals court then sent the case back to Boasberg for a fresh sentence.

Ahead of Friday’s hearing, prosecutors argued that the judge should not deviate from his original sentence.

“At Mock’s original sentencing, the Court varied downward, assessing a sentence it believed was fair and just under the circumstances. While the government’s initial recommendation diverged from that result, the Court’s sentence nonetheless took into account the gravity of the crimes and the history and characteristics of the defendant,” prosecutors wrote in a brief. “At resentencing, none of those factors have changed. Indeed, the Court’s 33-month sentence is still well below the now governing guidelines, and an additional reduction is simply unwarranted.”

Mock had been identified with the assistance of several people, including his son, according to court documents.

Mock wrote on Facebook after the breach, according to the FBI, that he went to the Capitol “not knowing what to expect but said goodbye to my 4 children, not sure if I was going to come home.”

He added: “I held my own and then some when I watched Capitol police beating women and old men.”

Prosecutors said Mock assaulted four different officers during the riot and stole two police riot shields. They said he was “an avid and willing participant in an unprecedented crime.”

Mock’s lawyers said in their brief that the judge should give Mock a sentence of time served due to multiple factors, including his recent receipt of a positive cancer screening.

The lawyers said that Mock has been an exemplary inmate since being incarcerated.

A spokesperson for the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Washington, which prosecuted the case, declined to comment. A lawyer representing Mock did not return an inquiry.