Brandon Fellows (via FBI court filings).
A New York man convicted of a felony in the Jan. 6 riot at the U.S. Capitol wants to delay his sentencing, despite the fact that he thinks prison is “awesome and very fun!”
Brandon Fellows was convicted by a jury in August of one felony and four misdemeanors in connection with the Jan. 6 siege on the U.S. Capitol, when a mob of Donald Trump supporters overwhelmed law enforcement and breached the building as Congress was set to certify Joe Biden’s 2020 electoral win. Jurors determined that Fellows engaged in obstruction of an official proceeding, which carries a potential 20-year statutory maximum, and four trespassing and disorderly conduct misdemeanors.
He is scheduled to be sentenced on March 1, and prosecutors are seeking a sentence of just over three years in prison.
Fellows, however, wants to delay his sentencing and remain in jail in Washington, D.C., where he is currently being held.
In a vitriolic filing dripping with contempt, Brandon Fellows — who represents himself — told U.S. District Judge Trevor McFadden that he believes his fate should be determined after the U.S. Supreme Court rules in the case of Joseph Fischer, who, like Fellows, was convicted of the obstruction charge. Defense lawyers have fought the obstruction charge against accused rioters for years, although it has been upheld at nearly every legal turn: only one judge at the district level in Washington, D.C., found that it didn’t apply in Jan. 6 cases, and an appellate court affirmed the use of the charge in a split decision issued in April.
“[R]esolution of Fischer (among many other things) will directly impact the validity of my conviction on that count as well what sentence would, according to the guidelines, be appropriate for me,” Fellows wrote. “Though I’m past them already, and as mentioned, this whole ordeal was beyond ridiculous, the police and federal government set others and myself up (and you helped cover it up in the pre-trial stage as well as the trial stage).”
“Not to mention,” Fellows added, “we had and have a right to overthrow the government once Pence certified the stolen election (which as my videos proved, was what caused people to break in, people falsely sharing he certified it).”
Fellows argued that a decision in Fischer could potentially mean a different sentence entirely.
“Proceeding to sentencing in my case will potentially prejudice me should the Supreme Court resolve Fischer in my favor, especially in light of the fact that I have already served a significant period of incarceration pretrial (despite that the government knowingly lied to make me fit the BRA, and despite that your corrupt self helped cover that up as well),” Fellows wrote. He added that sentencing him in March “will also involve the expenditure of judicial resources that ultimately may prove to have been unnecessary (like this entire case/investigation/incarceration) based on Fischer’s outcome, i.e., a remand for re-sentencing at a minimum.”
Fellows is not the first convicted Jan. 6 rioter to make such a request: As Law&Crime previously reported, at least two people convicted of participating in the siege want to be released from prison until after the Supreme Court decides whether the obstruction charge can stand.
Fellows told McFadden that he wants to delay sentencing despite his disdain for his current situation, and his opinion that prison is actually a pretty good time.
“[J]ail is worse than prison (less nutritional value in food, no weight rooms, no classes to take, etc.)(Fort Worth and Lewisberg were awesome and very fun!). I also don’t get to accelerate my time while here via prison programs. So, if anything, this is more “punishment” (though i shouldn’t be punished at all),” Fellows reasoned. “It’s also less money spent on my government funded room and board. I’m sure even you could agree, the amount spent so far in this joke of a case is already ridiculous.”
McFadden, a Trump appointee, was the first among his colleagues to acquit an accused Jan. 6 rioter after a bench trial, reasoning that it was “plausible” to conclude that because cops didn’t fight back against the invading scores of rioters, they had permission to be in the building.
This does not appear to have been on Fellows’ mind when he filed his request.
“Take a baby step towards not continuing to rule and act like a modern day Nazi judge, stay the proceedings pending resolution of Fisher,” Fellows wrote to conclude his filing. “Or do what you do best, do the opposite, after all, you do what you want, not what makes sense or should be done.”
“Your favorite Political prisoner, Brandon Fellows,” he added.
Read Fellows’ filing here.
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