Jeremy Brown, who was a member of the Trump-supporting mob that attacked the Capitol in January and is a member of the far-right group known as the Oath Keepers, has been ordered to remain in jail after his recent arrest on weapons and trespassing-related charges. Ahead of the riot, Brown came prepared — he drove an RV to the area which he referred to as “Ground Force One,” and he showed up with military garb, surgical shears, and zip ties. Federal Judge Sean P. Flynn ordered Brown to remain detained this week in light of an openly threatening sign that he placed outside of his home after a previous visit from authorities.
As summarized by the Tampa Bay Times, the sign from Brown “bore a message addressed to the FBI, the Department of Homeland Security, the U.S. Marshals Service and the Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Office,” and it said that the next time that personnel appeared at his home, they should “bring a bigger tactical package.” The implication appeared to be that Brown was threatening to violently confront officers should they show up. Flynn characterized the message as a “specific threat to law enforcement,” which he noted that he “can’t ignore.” The judge also observed that, should a violent situation unfold at Brown’s home in the event that he was released from custody, then the law enforcement personnel who could find themselves under attack “would have every right to blame me for putting them in that position.”
Brown’s charge of possession of unregistered firearms could bring him up to 10 years in prison. At a hearing this week on whether to allow Brown to leave custody, Assistant U.S. Attorney Risha Asokan also raised concerns about Brown’s “history of disappearing,” as the Times put it, which is something that could clearly pose a problem for any efforts to put Brown on trial. Brown is a veteran who served as a Special Forces soldier, and his past run-ins with law enforcement include a 2019 incident when Tampa-area police tried to obtain a risk protection order against Brown allowing them to seize his guns following reports from his family that he’d disappeared. A judge blocked that request.
Brown claimed at his hearing this week that the case “is about locking me away so that I’ll stop talking,” and he added that he is “an expert at what’s going on in this country.” Is that why he showed up at the Capitol in January prepared to participate in a violent assault on the seat of this country’s democracy? What happened was not about patriotism — it was about a dangerously pathological and egotistical obsession with one man: Donald Trump.
