Jeremy Brown, the self-described Oath Keepers member and lauded 20-year U.S. Army Special Forces soldier, was found guilty Monday in six of ten counts related to possessing illegally registered guns, explosives and classified Defense Department documents.
In the federal trial in Tampa, he was found not guilty on four other charges related to possession of national security documents.
Five of the six charges are federal felonies subject to up to 10 years in prison; the sixth charge is a misdemeanor subject to up to one year in prison. He will be sentenced by federal Judge Susan C. Bucklew on March 13, 2023.
The jury deliberated for more than five hours Monday in deciding the case involving Brown – who is one of more than 900 people arrested in connection with the attack at the U.S. Capitol in Washington D.C. on Jan. 6, 2021.
However, January 6 was never mentioned in the six-day trial, despite the fact that it was his arrest on accusations of trespassing near the U.S. Capitol and engaging in disorderly conduct, both federal misdemeanors, that led to the federal trial in Tampa.
That Tampa trial was focused mostly on federal felony charges resulting from federal agents searching Brown’s home and RV.
Brown was found guilty on Monday on the two counts of unlawfully owning two guns; two counts of possessing military grenades; one misdemeanor count of knowingly storing explosive material illegally, and one count of possessing national security documents — a 2011 “Trip Report” that was about the search for then-missing U.S. Army Soldier Bowe Bergdahl that Brown had claimed was his own “work product.”
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But Brown’s defense successfully created reasonable doubt with the jurors on the four other charges — that he possessed classified secret Defense Department records, all tied to a CD-rom allegedly found at the time of the search in his RV. But there was no original photo taken of the CD from the search, nor was there any forensic evidence that he owned the CD.
It was the legal argument by Roger Futerman, Brown’s defense attorney, that federal agents actually planted the CD and the two hand grenades found in Brown’s RV on Sept. 30, 2021.
Futerman had argued that there was no reason why Brown would have endangered his girlfriend, his dogs and himself with keeping live grenades in his RV. “I couldn’t tell you who put them there,” Futerman told the jury, but they weren’t from Brown, he said.
There was also compelling evidence from forensic agents about the lack of DNA and fingerprints on the grenades, but the government argued on Monday that in fact a Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Office narcotics detective testified that he found the grenades in a “chest-rig” in the bedroom of Brown’s RV — a type of military vest used to carry firearm magazines and other items.
Brown, 48, was a decorated U.S. Army veteran who earned two Bronze Stars during his 20-year military career (1992-2012).
Although it’s impossible to know how the jury felt about Brown, they may have been affected by a quote originally made on Friday and repeated in the closing argument by federal prosecutor Menno Goedman. In the closing statement, Goedman quoted Brown as telling his girlfriend during a jail phone conversation right before the trial — all his conversations were record by the government — “I could lie my ass off and they’d love the shit out of me.”
Brown became active with the Oath Keepers, a far-right militia group, shortly after the 2020 presidential election, and that’s what led him to be outside the Capitol on Jan. 6. He never entered the Capitol that day, and was never accused of doing anything violent that day.
But the government charged him with being outside the Capitol that day, though not until Sept. 30, 2021. With a warrant in hand, federal agents arrested him and then conducted a search of his home and RV, where they said that they had discovered the illegal guns, explosives and secret documents.
Brown has been detained in the Pinellas County jail ever since then, because a federal judge said at his initial bond hearing that he “poses a danger to law enforcement officials,” and that “no condition or combination of conditions of release will reasonably assure the safety of any other person and the community.”
U.S. Magistrate Judge Sean Flynn was particularly troubled by a sign that Brown posted on the front door of his home that was directed to federal and local law enforcement officials that said that they “Better bring a bigger Tactical PACKAGE,” referring to weapons.
A Republican, he briefly filed as a congressional candidate in Hillsborough County in 2020 to run against Democrat Kathy Castor. He ended up running from jail as a GOP candidate in House District 62 last month, losing to Democrat Michele Rayner.
Every day at the trial over the past week, a hardcore group of between a dozen to 20 supporters crammed into the small courtroom to show support for Brown.
Brown will now return to the Pinellas County jail, where he’s been every day for more than 14 months.
Editor’s note: This story by author Mitch Perry was originally published by the Tallahassee-based nonprofit news site Florida Phoenix. Find the original story here, and visit the Florida Phoenix website for more in-depth stories, briefs and commentary on current events.
