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A onetime Maryland leader of the neo-fascist group the Proud Boys is facing multiple years in prison for his role in the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol.
Scott Miller, of Millersville in Anne Arundel County, is facing sentencing Friday in U.S. District Court in Washington for his role in the insurrection. He pleaded guilty in January to assaulting, resisting or impeding certain officers using a dangerous weapon.
Federal prosecutors on Saturday filed a sentencing memorandum seeking 71 months in prison for Miller, who says he’s broken ties with the Proud Boys and that he should serve no more than two years in prison.
Miller, 36, is one of about three dozen people from Maryland charged with taking part in the insurrection and more than 1,200 defendants charged by the U.S. Department of Justice.
In the sentencing memorandum, federal prosecutors said Miller arrived in Washington around 3 p.m. and, within 75 minutes, made his way to the Lower West Terrace tunnel and joined the crowd fighting the police, prosecutors said.
After pushing his way through other rioters, Miller picked up a long pole from the ground and charged toward a line of officers at the entryway to a tunnel leading into the Capitol, prosecutors said. Once there, Miller swung the pole repeatedly at a Metropolitan Police officer identified in court records as L.M., striking her on her body, head and helmet as she attempted to hold the police line at the mouth of the tunnel.
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After falling back into the crowd, Miller threw at least four things at police — including a bottle, a stick, a large black speaker and an article of clothing, prosecutors said. Miller found another long pole and attacked police with it, hitting two officers at least seven times, prosecutors said.
Miller also pulled a shield away from a police officer and passed it into the crowd and broke a glass pane on the building, prosecutors said.
After the riots, Miller joined other Proud Boys in an online chat called “Cleared for Entry.” Miller made the last entry in the group chat, noting that someone had been arrested, saying, “Damn he was just on the chat.”
In a December 2022 search of Miller’s home, prosecutors said, investigators found Proud Boys patches, insignia clothing, bumper stickers and a document indicating Miller held a leadership role in the Proud Boys.
Some of these items had the slogan, “We Are Watching,” prosecutors said. Agents also recovered items with Nazi insignia, including a patch featuring the slogan of the Schutzstaffel, or SS, a major paramilitary organization under Adolf Hitler.
Inside Miller’s closet was a shirt bearing the words “Minneapolis Police” and “CHAUVIN,” a reference to the police officer who has been convicted of the murder of George Floyd in the summer of 2020. Miller wore the shirt as a Halloween costume, as shown by a photograph found on his cellphone, prosecutors said.
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In seeking a two-year sentence, Miller, a Baltimore native, said in a sentencing memorandum filed Friday that he’s been employed since March 2023 and has complied with restrictions the court has put on his behavior since being arrested.
Miller told the court he joined the Proud Boys because he sought a sense of community.
“As he describes it, he joined the group mostly because he wanted to find a group of guys to drink and party with — the fraternity that he never experienced in college,” his attorney, A.J. Kramer, a federal public defender, wrote in the presentence memorandum.
While he didn’t plan on attending the “Stop the Steal” rally that became a riot, Miller was quickly remorseful, his attorney said.
“He immediately understood that what he did was wrong,” Kramer said. “... His conduct was rash and reckless, but it was not planned.”
Miller will be sentenced by U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan, who has handled multiple Jan. 6-related cases.
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Brett Barrouquere is an editor on the Express Desk, handling breaking news.
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