WASHINGTON (CN) — A Capitol rioter whose son turned him in to the FBI was sentenced to nearly three years in prison on Thursday — after asking the judge for a longer sentence than the one recommended by his own attorney — for his role in the attack on the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021
Brian Mock, 44, traveled from Minnesota to Washington, where he engaged in four separate assaults against Capitol police officers in what prosecutors called a “5-minute frenzy.”
In a sentencing memorandum, defense attorney Michelle Peterson asked for a sentence between 24 and 30 months in prison, minus the 11 months Mock spent in pretrial detention. Peterson, a federal public defender from Washington, noted that Mock’s conduct was much less serious than that of other rioters, many of whom received sentences well below the 109 months the government wanted Mock to serve.
Mock on Thursday asked Chief U.S. District Judge James Boasberg show him that same leniency — but suggested a sentence above what Peterson had recommended, requesting between 30 and 36 months in prison.
The judge noted how unusual it was to hear a defendant ask for more time behind bars. He emphasized that he thought 33 months was appropriate, due in part to Mock’s less serious assaults and clear desire to remedy his actions.
“You’re obviously someone who likes to stir things up and get a reaction out of people … but whether you wanted to spur people to violence, I think it’s more of the former than latter,” Boasberg said.
Judge Boasberg, a Barack Obama appointee, noted that he felt quite familiar with Mock at that point after he represented himself during the bench trial, meaning Boasberg spoke with Mock directly throughout the proceedings, rather than with his attorney.
But as he passed down the 33-month sentence, which was well below the 9 years the Justice Department had requested, he said it was difficult to square the man he had come to know in the courtroom with the one at the Capitol that day.
“You came expecting violence … it’s hard to think of you as a bystander,” Boasberg said. “But I don’t think your intent when you left Minnesota was to overthrow the government.”
Speaking before the court, Mock admitted he “screwed up” but made an effort to justify his actions, describing the crowd that day as peaceful before the police attacked and saying he merely “reacted and reacted wrong.”
He said he was convinced to come to Washington by GOP politicians besides Donald Trump who spread false claims about election fraud in 2020 — without them he would not have come.
The judge, agreeing, said many politicians “should be ashamed of themselves for spreading these lies.”
In the weeks following the 2020 election, Mock frequently made inflammatory posts on social media, calling for “millions of armed citizens” to rise up and for “total rebellion." Before leaving for the capital, Mock told his eldest son, A.J. Mock, to watch over the house and mentioned that he might not come back.
Throughout his statement on Thursday, Mock made repeated references to a New York Times article that highlighted his and his son A.J.’s relationship in the time since he was turned into the FBI, arrested and since returned home.
In the article, A.J. described how he saw a news alert seeking help to identify hundreds of rioters one day at work, and scrolled until he found his father, No. 298, on the list. After returning home, he identified Brian Mock in an email to the FBI and told agents his father had been “bragging about beating up cops and destroying property.”
Brian Mock said he agreed to participate in the article only because his son wanted to, but that he felt it was a step toward reconciling the partisan divide that seems to only be widening.
Boasberg convicted Mock on 11 counts in July 2023, following a bench trial: obstruction of an official proceeding, civil disorder, assaulting officers, assaulting officers with a dangerous weapon, theft of government property, engaging in violence on Capitol grounds, entering restricted grounds and disorderly conduct with a dangerous weapon.
Federal prosecutors say Mock attacked four Capitol Police officers across the West Plaza in a five-minute period. He pushed and tried to kick an officer on the ground, threw a broken flagpole at a line of officers and shoved a distracted officer, causing him to fall over a step behind him.
After his frenzy, Mock found a police baton and began “stalk[ing] the West Plaza looking for more trouble,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Mike Gordon said on Thursday.
Mock contested at trial that he had kicked the first officer on the ground, and said he thought the last officer was going for his gun to explain why he shoved him. He did not enter the Capitol itself.
In the 37 months since Jan. 6, 2021, over 1,313 people have been charged in connection to the Capitol riot. Approximately 490 have been sentenced to periods of incarceration.
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