Accused Capitol rioter who claimed he was the ‘first person to breech the White House’ on Jan. 6 hints at potential insanity defense

Just weeks after he agreed to a bench trial before a federal judge in Washington, D.C., accused Jan. 6 rioter Trevor Brown of Novi, Michigan, has said he might invoke an insanity defense.

The disclosure was made in an Aug. 20 status report in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia. Lawyers for Brown noted in the filing that it may take a few weeks for their expert to complete an evaluation but they expect that by the next status conference on Sept. 3, “defendant will know for certain and inform the court whether he intends to assert an insanity defense and if so, a report will be prepared and ready for production to the court and the government by that date.”

Brown has already met with the expert evaluator, the status report notes, but there may be a second meeting needed, as well as further document review.

He is facing five charges including obstruction of law enforcement during civil disorder, knowingly entering or remaining in any restricted building or grounds without lawful authority, disorderly and disruptive conduct in a restricted building, violent entry and disorderly conduct and parading, and demonstrating or picketing in a Capitol building.

U.S. District Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly, an appointee of former President Bill Clinton, is presiding over Brown’s case. A review of the federal docket shows the Michigan man, who was first arrested in 2021, was on track for a bench trial to unfold in late July and likely into early August. He had waived his right to a jury trial. But after a status conference on July 17, that schedule shifted. Records show Brown’s lawyers told Kollar-Kotelly at that time that they intended to raise the insanity defense and the judge agreed to postpone the trial until the assessment was completed.

According to a statement of facts, prosecutors say that on Jan. 6, 2021, Brown was at the front of a crowd of rioters trying to force their way inside of the Capitol before 4 p.m. Brown was arrested on Jan. 6, put in zip-tie handcuffs and transported to a local police station before he was eventually released without any charges filed.

But from January 2021 to May 2021, prosecutors said the FBI received no less than three tips about Brown, noting that they saw videos he posted on his Facebook indicating he was at the Capitol on Jan. 6.

FBI agents said when they began review of his social media, Brown left them easy clues to identify him: his Facebook profile photo was of him at the Capitol on Jan. 6 and the banner of his Facebook page also featured a scene from that day. There was other media on the Facebook account that helped agents identify Brown, as well as content on his Instagram account.

One such message on Facebook Jan. 6, 2021, stated: “The world is a stage & Jiu jitsu saved my life many times tonight.”

That same evening he posted screenshots of video taken from inside the Capitol’s lower west terrace during the melee. That particular section of the Capitol saw some of the most brutal violence of the day.

On Jan. 7, 2021, Brown also allegedly posted a Facebook message below a screenshot of the rioting at the tunnel. This time, he wrote: “I May or May not know who’s on the PA screaming ‘HEEVE HO.'”

“Today th[e]se elitist creeps are getting the same thing we live with everyday, fear for their own safety,” Brown allegedly wrote. “The whole whore house needs to be cleaned out.”

In a statement of facts, prosecutors noted Brown shared other messages less than 24 hours after the attack suggesting “People should be storming that Brothel we call the Capitol everyday for what goes on in there.”

In another message Brown said he was the “first person to breech the White House in 200 years.”

Brown was nowhere near the White House on Jan. 6, but footage he shared online, as well as Capitol surveillance footage obtained by prosecutors, does show him outside the lower west terrace tunnel with a large crowd at his back as he tries to push his way inside.

When he first showed up to the lower west terrace, the FBI said Brown could be seen roughly 12 rows back from the tunnel entrance using a bullhorn to egg on the crowd.

He continued to inch forward and prosecutors say the chaos around him was unmistakable: he was standing right there as a group of rioters passed a large flagpole up to the front of the line to jam it into police in the tunnel. Another rioter near Brown was spraying liquid from a canister, likely a chemical irritant, right into the tunnel, prosecutors said.

Prosecutors say Brown maneuvered himself so that eventually he got to the front of the crowd and found himself just one or two rows back from the mouth of the tunnel. As police were being assaulted all around him, the FBI says, Brown at one point appeared to “make a hand signal to another rioter in front of him indicating that he wanted something handed back to him.”

“Shortly after, a riot shield, which appears to have been pulled away by the rioters in front of Brown is pulled back toward Brown. As the shield moves closer to Brown, Brown reaches his hand out to grab the shield. As this shield is being held up, two rioters who were hanging by from the top of the tunnel entrance step onto the shield.”

Brown’s attorney did not immediately return a request for comment.

Brown is not the first Jan. 6 defendant to attempt claiming insanity as a defense — or at least present it as a rationale for the judge to consider ahead of sentencing. A lawyer for convicted Jan. 6 rioter Christopher Brian Roe of Missouri unsuccessfully attempted to argue that Roe was a likely victim of cult-like psychosis and asked Kollar-Kotelly, who was overseeing the case, to consider the analysis developed in two studies: one from 2016, “Between Belief and Delusion: Cult Members and the Insanity Plea” and a September 2021 study called “Seeking Evidence of The MAGA Cult and Trump Derangement Syndrome: An Examination of (A)symmetric Political Bias.”

Roe, who carried a metal-tipped pitchfork with him to the Capitol, was sentenced to 70 months for his assault on police.

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