A 28-year-old Eagan mail carrier is now serving a six-month probation for his role in the Jan. 6, 2021, siege of the U.S. Capitol.
Frank Joseph Bratjan Jr. pleaded guilty in August to charges filed two months earlier in Washington, D.C., as part of the massive federal investigation into the deadly insurrection that was intended to stop certification of the 2020 presidential election.
In an email to the Star Tribune on Monday, Bratjan wrote that he was "not on the front lines of any fighting, nor did I damage anything or harm anyone." He remains employed with the U.S. Postal Service and said he still hears frustrations from customers about the lack of punishment given to rioters "over the past two years."
"Because of this I feel it is important to complete this story published earlier, so that the community can see there is indeed justice being carried out," Bratjan wrote.
Bratjan is one of nine people from Minnesota charged in connection with storming the U.S. Capitol as a mob that supported former President Donald Trump sought to stop Congress from certifying the Electoral College vote count that would make President Joe Biden's election victory official.
Then living out of his vehicle in Syracuse, N.Y., Bratjan drove to Washington, D.C., to protest the certification and attended the "Stop the Steal" rally at the National Mall before marching to the Capitol on Jan. 6.
He admitted to entering the Capitol through a broken window next to the Senate wing door that other rioters broke minutes earlier as part of the first breach of the building that day.
Bratjan pleaded guilty in August to one count of "parading, demonstrating or picketing in a Capitol Building" and was sentenced in federal court in the U.S. District of Columbia on Sept. 14 before his probation was transferred to Minnesota.
Via email, Bratjan wrote that he moved to Minnesota to live with his mother before his June arrest not because he was fearful of the FBI's search for Capitol rioters — as initial charges suggested — but because he had lost his job at a Panera Bread for leaving the state during an emergency lockdown.
"I had little money and my mother offered a spare room, until I found solid footing, so to speak," Bratjan wrote.
Federal prosecutors wanted Bratjan to be sentenced to 14 days imprisonment and three years' probation.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Emily Allen in Washington, D.C., wrote in a memo to the court that the judge must consider that Bratjan's conduct "took place in the context of a large and violent riot that relied on numbers to overwhelm police officers trying to prevent a breach of the Capitol Building and to disrupt the proceedings."
"Bratjan's actions and those of his fellow rioters enabled the breach [of] the Capitol, threatened the lives of police officers, legislators and their staffs, and disrupted the certification vote for several hours," Allen wrote last month.
According to notes from Bratjan's June 14 FBI interview that prosecutors filed as part of their sentencing arguments, Bratjan told agents that he believed the Jan. 6 rally was going to be a "historical moment" and "wanted to assist with standing up to the election theft." He said he saw a group of rioters dressed in full tactical gear fighting with U.S. Capitol Police officers and later heard other rioters shouting to find Nancy Pelosi and other representatives they called out by name.
He said that because so many people were masked and that he was in a large group of people, he didn't think it "would ever come back to bite me" even though he definitely saw cameras around, according to notes from the interview.
