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Prosecutors had recommended a sentence of five years in prison followed by three years of supervised release.

Judge Bates convicted Brock in November after a bench trial. The judge said Brock delivered “very concerning” and violent rhetoric before the riots on January 6.

The judge read aloud several of Brock’s social media posts, calling it “really pretty amazing” that a former high-ranking military officer would utter those words.

“That is chilling and reflects the purpose of stopping the certification of the election,” the judge said.

Brock believed unsubstantiated conspiracy theories that the 2020 presidential election was stolen from Republican incumbent Donald Trump, prosecutors said.

“When we get to the bottom of this conspiracy, we need to execute the traitors trying to steal the election, and that includes the leaders of the media and social media who aid and abet the coup plotters,” Brock wrote in a September 9 statement. November. 2020, Facebook post.

In a Facebook message to another user on Christmas Eve, Brock outlined what he called an “action plan if Congress doesn’t act” on January 6. One of the “main tasks” of his plan was to “seize all the Democratic politicians and Biden.” key personnel and select Republicans.”

“Begin interrogations using the measures we use in al Qaeda to obtain evidence about the coup,” he wrote.

Brock, a Texan living in the Dallas area, flew combat missions in Afghanistan before retiring from the Air Force as a lieutenant colonel.

His “action plan” also called for a “general pardon for all crimes, including the murder of those who restore the Constitution and put down the democratic insurrection.”

“Don’t kill LEO unless you have to,” he wrote, apparently referring to law enforcement officers.

Brock did not engage in any violence on January 6, but prosecutors said his behavior was “disturbingly premeditated.”

“Had the Senate Gallery not been emptied minutes earlier, Brock could have come face to face with the politicians he had fantasized about capturing and interrogating,” they wrote in a court filing.

Judge Bates convicted Brock on all six counts, including obstruction of official proceeding, in the January 6 joint session of Congress for certifying President Joe Biden’s electoral victory.

Defense attorney Charles Burnham said it is “inconceivable that (Brock) was motivated by anything other than a genuine concern for democracy.”

“If Mr. Brock was sincerely motivated by high ideals, that significantly reduces his culpability, even if the court privately disagreed with his view,” Burnham wrote in a court filing.

Brock attended the “Stop the Steal” rally where former President Donald Trump addressed a crowd of supporters on January 6.

He was wearing a helmet and tactical vest when he joined the mob that attacked the Capitol. She entered the building through the Senate wing doors approximately 12 minutes after they were initially breached by other rioters.

On the ground near the East Rotunda stairs, Brock picked up a discarded pair of handcuffs. He held the “flexible handcuffs” in his right hand in the gallery of the Senate. On the Senate floor, he examined the paperwork on the senators’ desks.

“This was consistent with Brock’s overall mission stated on January 6, which was intelligence gathering to stop certification and transfer of power,” prosecutors wrote.

Brock graduated from the Air Force Academy in 1989. He served on active duty until 1998 and served in the reserves until 2014.

In a letter to the judge, a retired Air Force major general praised Brock’s military service. The major general, whose name has been redacted from public court documents, said Brock risked his life to protect US forces from a Taliban attack, flying below mountain peaks into a valley “saturated with enemy forces”.

“The result thwarted enemy advances on American personnel, saved American lives, and defused an escalating situation for forces at that remote base in Afghanistan,” the major general wrote.

Brock was hired as a pilot for a commercial airline on January 6. His attorney said the Federal Aviation Administration revoked Brock’s licenses after his arrest in January 2021.

Approximately 1,000 people have been charged with federal crimes related to the January 6 riots. More than 400 of them have been convicted, and more than half have received prison terms ranging from seven days to 10 years.

At least 70 of the convicted rioters have served in the military, according to an Associated Press review of court records.

Also Friday, a rioter who signed up for the Air Force after assaulting police on Capitol Hill was sentenced to three years and four months in prison.

Aiden Bilyard was 18 years old when he sprayed an irritating chemical toward a line of police officers before using a baseball bat to break a window on Capitol Hill.

Bilyard was attending basic training at Lackland Air Force Base near San Antonio, Texas, when the FBI questioned him several months after the riot.

He later parted ways with the Air Force and returned home to Cary, North Carolina. Bilyard, now 20, pleaded guilty to one count of assault last year.