(WASHINGTON, D.C.) — A retired Air Force officer and United States Air Force Academy (USAFA) graduate was sentenced to two years in prison for his involvement in the Jan. 6, 2021 riot at the U.S. Capitol.
According to the Associated Press (AP), 55-year-old Larry Brock of Grapevine, Texas joined other rioters on the Senate floor only minutes after then-Vice President Mike Pence, senators, and their staff evacuated the chamber to escape the rioters attacking the building.
Brock was convicted by U.S. District Judge John Bates in November 2022 after waiving his right to a jury trial. Prosecutors at the time had recommended a sentence of five years in prison followed by three years of supervised release. Brock will serve two years in prison, followed by two years of supervised release and 100 hours of community service.
AP reports that Judge Bates called Brock’s rhetoric leading up to the Jan. 6 riot “very troubling,” and the judge read some of Brock’s posts on social media aloud, some of which called for executions and pardons for murders committed by “those restoring the Constitution and putting down the Democratic Insurrection.”
“That’s chilling stuff, and it does reflect a purpose to stop the certification of the election,” Bates said. Bates added that it was “really pretty astounding” that a former high-ranking military officer expressed such sentiments.
“When we get to the bottom of this conspiracy we need to execute the traitors that are trying to steal the election, and that includes the leaders of the media and social media aiding and abetting the coup plotters,” Brock wrote in a post to Facebook on Nov. 9. 2020.
In a Facebook message to another user on Christmas Eve, Brock outlined what he called a “plan of action if Congress fails to act” on Jan. 6. One of the “main tasks” in his plan was to “seize all Democratic politicians and Biden key staff and select Republicans.”
“Begin interrogations using measures we used on al-Qaida to gain evidence on the coup,” he wrote.
Brock flew combat missions in Afghanistan before retiring from the Air Force as a lieutenant colonel.
The AP said Brock did not engage in any violence on Jan. 6, but prosecutors said his behavior was “disturbingly premediated.”
“Had the Senate Gallery not been emptied minutes before, Brock could have come face-to-face with the politicians he had fantasized about seizing and interrogating,” prosecutors wrote in a court filing.
Brock was convicted on all six counts in his indictment, including obstruction of an official proceeding – the Jan. 6 joint session of Congress for certifying President Joe Biden’s electoral victory. The obstruction charge is a felony; the other five counts are misdemeanors.
Brock graduated from the Air Force Academy in 1989. He was on active duty until 1998 and served in the reserves until 2014. He was employed as a commercial airline pilot on Jan. 6, and his lawyer said the Federal Aviation Administration revoked his licenses after his January 2021 arrest.
Approximately 1,000 people have been charged with federal crimes related to the Jan. 6 riot. More than 400 of them have been sentenced, with over half getting terms of imprisonment ranging from seven days to 10 years.
At least 70 of the sentenced rioters have served in the military, according to an AP review of court records.
The Associated Press contributed to this article.
