Bruno Cua: DOJ's portrait of a 'domestic terrorist'

FPI / March 8, 2021

Georgia resident Bruno Joseph Cua, 18, is the youngest of the nearly 300 people the Department of Justice has arrested as part of its investigation into the breach of the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6.

He was arrested on Feb. 5 by FBI agents in Atlanta. A grand jury indicted the high school student on 12 counts, including assaulting a police officer and possessing a “dangerous or deadly” weapon.

For three weeks, Cua was held in solitary confinement before being transported to a jail in Oklahoma City where he shared a cell with 30 other inmates. His family has been denied the opportunity to post bail.

A columnist noted that the treatment of Cua is part of Team Biden's strategy for going after so-called "domestic terrorists" who they contend engaged in an "armed insurrection" on Jan. 6.

The Biden administration "wants to ruin the Cua family and send a message to others," Julie Kelly noted in a March 4 analysis for American Greatness.

"The government doesn’t just view young Bruno as a threat but also characterizes his parents as threats," Kelly noted. "Bruno’s father was interrogated by federal prosecutors about his private conversations with his son after the riot, demanding to know why he and his wife didn’t stop him from entering the Capitol, what punishment he faced once they returned home, and why they didn’t do a better job monitoring his social media accounts. Joseph Cua described their frantic attempts to contact their son while he was inside the Capitol, to no avail as cell service was shut down."

Bruno faces three weapons charges for allegedly carrying a small baton into the Capitol building. He did not use it either to attack anyone or vandalize the building. He also faces various trespassing misdemeanors.

"The evidence presented in charging documents is shockingly thin, considering he’s been incarcerated for one month as of Friday, and it leans heavily on video taken by a New Yorker reporter and Bruno’s own Instagram account," Kelly noted.

One prosecutor suggested Bruno had been politically brainwashed by his parents because he is homeschooled.

“I don’t believe that home incarceration will work because he is an 18-year-old who’s homeschooled,” assistant U.S. Attorney Ryan Buchanan told a magistrate judge last month. “And so this case did not arise out of him traveling or going different places. It’s simply these things that he has ingested, not just from the Internet.”

Therefore, Buchanan argued, “they are not suitable custodians in part because they may have participated in some of this activity as well.”

At one point, the government warned that Bruno's parents, Joseph and Alise Cua, could be in trouble, too.

“It would not be a stretch to say these parents could be charged with crimes of their own, not merely for aiding and abetting the activities of their son, but for unlawful entry on the Capitol grounds if in fact, as the defendant’s father testified under oath, they were present in the restricted area of the Capitol grounds on January 6, 2021.”

Kelly noted: "Perhaps the government can throw Bruno’s parents in jail, too, leaving their two younger children to the tender mercies of the foster care system?"

It is possible Bruno Cua could remain in jail until at least May when his trial is scheduled to begin. U.S. District Court Judge Randy Moss is weighing whether to finally release Bruno back to his parents or keep him detained for at least another two months.

"Moss seems inclined to side with government lawyers who insist Bruno is a danger to the community based on social media posts expressing outrage at the election, mocking Democrats including Joe Biden, and encouraging protestors to bring 'pepper spray, tasers, baseball bats' to the capital — big talk for a kid traveling with his mom and dad. Some of the posts being used as evidence against him, in fact, are dated after January 6," Kelly noted.

Prosecutors also contend that Bruno’s refusal to accept that Joe Biden fairly won the presidency is more proof he should stay in jail. “The offenses committed by the defendant illuminate characteristics inconsistent with a person who could follow orders given by this Court, or indeed, any branch of the federal government. The defendant has espoused disbelief in the outcome of the 2020 Presidential election, and violently acted on that world view.”

Kelly noted that, in Cua's case, "the government, both judges and lawyers, routinely cite a defendant’s doubt about last year’s election as evidence of wrongdoing."

The Cua case "has nothing to do with seeking justice for the melee on January 6 or appropriately prosecuting one of the participants. It has nothing to do with making sure the nation’s capital or Cua’s hometown remains safe," Kelly wrote. "It has everything to do with punishing a family who dared to show up in support of Donald Trump and dared to question the legitimacy of the 2020 election."

Alise Cua told Judge Moss: “Since he has been arrested, everything has changed for us. We just want our family together. I don’t even want to even hear the word politics. Bruno feels the same way. We are completely broken.”

As Kelly pointed out, "that’s exactly what the U.S. Justice Department wants."

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