Retired Green Beret gets 7 years for weapons conviction
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TAMPA, Fla. (WFLA) — Retired Green Beret and former Oath Keeper Jeremy Brown was sentenced to over seven years in prison on weapons charges leveled during a federal investigation into 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 to 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.”
The presentence investigation recommended a punishment range of 87 to 108 months. Each felony carried a maximum sentence of 10 years in prison.
Brown argued the guns are legal under the Second Amendment, and he claimed the grenades and documents were planted by federal agents during the search.
Brown is expected to be tried in Washington, D.C. at a later date for allegedly trespassing on Capitol grounds on January 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 NewsNation affiliate WFLA 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.
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.
