Jeffrey Scott Brown

Jeff was among the estimated two hundred thousand-plus Americans who listened to the President’s speech at the Mall as he proclaimed, “I know that everyone here will soon be marching over to the Capitol building to peacefully and patriotically make your voices heard.”

Jeff joined the majority of protestors as they heeded Trump’s invitation to “walk down Pennsylvania Avenue” to the Capitol building. By the time Jeff arrived at Capitol Hill, an earlier crowd of protestors had already removed the first line of metal barricades and were gathered before a second line of barriers just outside the Capitol building. Jeff was shocked to witness police throwing tear gas grenades into the crowd, beating them back with batons, and dangerously firing rubber bullets at citizens from a high vantage point.

Jeff found himself amidst the crush around a tunnel in the Lower West Terrace, where chaos reigned as police and protestors clashed. One protestor stole a Metro Police duffle bag full of pepper spray canisters, which he distributed to other protestors.

As the crowd heaved against the makeshift police line, Jeffrey Brown received one of those canisters. He then dove towards the front of the police line, spraying them.

After the violence of the day settled, Jeff hadn’t entered the Capitol building. Instead, he made his way back home to California. As he resumed his normal life in Santa Ana, he had no idea that the FBI and Department of Justice had used provisions of the Patriot Act to label him a “domestic terrorist” and track him to his house.

Early August 26, 2021, twenty-five FBI agents invaded the Browns’ home. Armored up in tactical gear, the agents used a battering ram to break down the house’s front door. As his wife Jill watched in horror, Jeff was dragged out onto their home’s front lawn and handcuffed in his pajamas.

As someone with no prior arrests, Jeff was allowed out on bail by an Orange County judge who felt it was unnecessary to incarcerate Jeff based on the charges against him. However, one week later, a Washington, D.C. judge rescinded his bail. Among the reasons cited by the judge that Jeff was supposedly a danger to the public — Jeff’s Costco protest against mask mandates back in 2020. “Clearly, Brown is someone who acts on his beliefs,” wrote the judge.

Jeff turned himself in as directed. This began his nightmarish journey of being transported by officials from one jail to another, while he awaited trial for more than a year.

In an interview from jail on May 1, 2022 posted on Rumble, Jeff  stated, “I’ve been moved around to five different jails and six different [solitary confinement, COVID-19] quarantines in six different states. Throughout this time, [the other J6 accused and I] have been systematically denied our civil rights along with other basic human rights that have been afforded to other prisoners in the same facilities. Our continued detainment is due to political motivations and biases. I have no criminal background. In fact, most of us don’t. We’re locked up being denied our bond, being denied time with our loved ones… While we spend our life savings trying to defend ourselves.”

One of those jail facilities was shuttered due to filthy and inhumane conditions shortly after Jeff left. His final jail cell before trial was 8 feet by 8 feet. Jeff had to sleep on the floor, alongside two other inmates, even though the cell was designed for two men at most.

He has spent over 60 days in solitary quarantine.

Jeff recalls how he and his fellow J6 prisoners would sing the National Anthem together every night before lights out. Not allowed an American flag, they drew one on a piece of paper.

Over the many months, Jeff became emaciated.  “These men cannot survive on the food they are provided [by the jail],” a friend wrote. “They need to supplement with commissary. They are paying for their own food while incarcerated, and not allowed food sent to them by relatives.”

When it finally came time for Jeff’s jury trial, his defense attorney’s motions to change venue were denied, according to his wife.

“They say this is a fair and unbiased jury; but if you went to jury selection, you’d be shocked,” Jill said. “Everybody works for the government […] or they work for the Democratic National Committee. They had to get rid of two CNN reporters who were rotating through as part of the potential jurors. Almost all of them in the jury pool are related to the federal government in some way.”

On Wednesday, December 7, 2022, Jeffrey Scott Brown, by then 56, was convicted by the jury of one count of felony assaulting, resisting, or impeding law enforcements officers using a dangerous weapon, one count of interfering with a law enforcement officer during a civil disorder, and related charges.

After another four months in jail, on April 28, 2023, Jeff was sentenced to 54 months in prison. He’s now living in California again – this time behind bars in Lompoc, California, far from his wife and the freedom of the Pacific Ocean.