Minneapolis man involved in Jan. 6 insurrection has prison time trimmed to time served

A Minneapolis man imprisoned for joining the mob of Donald Trump supporters who stormed the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, had his sentence trimmed Friday by five months to time served.

Brian C. Mock, 45, was resentenced in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia nearly a year after he received a 2¾-year term, following guilty verdicts on all 11 charges after a bench trial in July before Chief Judge James Boasberg of the D.C. District Court.

Mock, who has been serving his time in the federal prison in Sandstone, Minn., had been scheduled to be released in June of this year. He was earlier given credit for the nearly full year he spent in jail awaiting trial. He will now move to two years of supervised release and is under orders to make $2,000 in restitution.

Friday’s resentencing followed the vacating of his conviction upon appeal on allegations of obstructing an official proceeding and aiding and abetting. That led to a change in the federal sentencing guidelines applied for the convictions on other counts.

The U.S. Attorney’s Office concurred with Mock’s resentencing, as it did for other Jan. 6 defendants. The imminent inauguration of Trump on Jan. 20 had no bearing on the ending of Mock’s incarceration.

Mock, a landscape company owner and former debt collector, was arrested in Minneapolis in June 2021.

Before he was first sentenced, prosecutors said video showed Mock committing four assaults during the violence outside the Capitol. They said he threw a broken flag pole at a line of police and, after pushing down two officers, tried to kick one of them. They said Mock shoved another officer in the back. He was also charged with taking two police riot shields and obstructing an official proceeding.

The defense responded that Mock shouldn’t have to serve any more time behind bars and should be put on supervised release.

“Mr. Mock’s conduct was certainly more serious than many who wandered through the Capitol but is far less serious than those who used weapons they brought or weapons they found to cause serious bodily injury to police officers,” the defense said. “Mr. Mock did not use a dangerous weapon and did not cause bodily injury to the officers involved.”

According to a U.S. Justice Department database, more than 1,500 people have been charged as of late 2024 with Capitol riot-related federal crimes. Two-thirds of them have been sentenced to terms ranging from probation or electronic home monitoring to 22 years in prison.

The mob left in its wake more than 100 police officers injured, some critically. Police gunfire killed one rioter inside the Capitol, and three other people died after medical emergencies during the chaos. In the weeks and months that followed, four of the officers who responded to the riot killed themselves.

The insurrection inside the Capitol sent lawmakers, staff members and others running for their lives. But it did not stop the House from certifying Joe Biden’s Electoral College victory.

Mock is one of 15 Minnesotans charged with various Jan. 6 crimes, from misdemeanors to felonies alleging violent acts against the members of law enforcement who were overwhelmed by the thousands of insurrectionists trying to prevent Congress from certifying the Electoral College tally that declared Biden the winner over incumbent Trump.

Seven of them are still waiting to go to trial. Two will go to court as soon as Jan. 13, one week before Trump is inaugurated; another will go in late January after Trump takes office.

Of the eight who have been sentenced, most served little to no prison time for their largely nonviolent offenses. Some sentences included home detention or probation.

The Associated Press contributed to this story.