A father whose son now faces several charges including civil disorder after the pair took part in the siege at the Capitol building on Jan. 6 says he regrets bringing his son to Washington, D.C., the Daily Beast [1] reports.
At a Friday bond hearing for [2] his 18-year-old son Bruno, Joseph Cua said he also regrets bombarding his family with baseless voter fraud conspiracy theories.
“I feel responsible for bringing him up into that environment,” Joseph Cua said. “I feel embarrassed that we drank in a lot of this rhetoric from so-called leaders that never materialized. I feel I should have known a little bit better at my age.”
On Friday, a U.S. Chief Magistrate Judge for The Northern District of Georgia ordered the Milton, Georgia teen — who implored his social media followers to “fight” for former President Donald Trump in the weeks leading up to the siege — to be held without bond pending his trial.
The Judge, Alan Braverman, also had sharp words for Cua’s parents for allowing Bruno to carry a weapon during the riots. He also criticized them for “blaming” leaders for misleading them, when they themselves should have set a proper example for their son.
“Mr. Cua said he is misled by leaders,” Braverman said. “Well, Mr. Cua is supposed to be the leader. These were not spontaneous, youthful actions.”
Photo evidence shows that on Jan. 6, having traveled to D.C. with his parents, the teen can be seen wearing a MAGA hat and a sweatshirt emblazoned with an eagle inside the Capitol. And a New Yorker video shows him in a crowd of rioters fighting their way onto the Senate floor.
Prosecutors noted that in one video of the riots “Cua is seen outside the Senate chamber doors, in a physical altercation USCP plainclothes officers, still holding a baton in his hand.”
Testifying on behalf of his son during a Friday hearing, Joseph Cua tried to focus the blame for his son’s belief in evidence-free conspiracy theories on the 2020 election on himself. When he realized no “big reveal” to lend credence to the conspiracy theories was going to happen, he said he was embarrassed that he believed the “bs.”
“I myself feel pretty embarrassed that a lot of us feel like this is what happened,” he said, adding that he now doesn’t believe the election was stolen. “There was no big reveal and nothing came out.”
In the video capture by the New Yorker, the teenager can be seen wandering around in the Senate chamber, recording rioters sitting at desks and stealing items. According to the complaint, one rioter was yelled at for trying to sit in former Vice President Mike Pence’s chair, and Cua could be heard responding “They can steal an election, but we can’t sit in their chairs?”
Cua is seen in other surveillance footage walking around the East Corridor with the baton still in his hand as he tries to enter several rooms.
During the hearing, Joseph Cua said that when he talked to his son after the riots, Bruno “said that he had gone in, they had walked around and taken some pictures.” There was “some pushing and shoving” but Cua said his son didn’t make the incident sound violent.
“It was a shock that he had gone in there,” the father testified before admitting he realized his son was carrying a baton. He also said he knew his son was planning to climb the scaffolding and didn’t make an effort to stop him.
“After the 6th I said that is the last rally we are ever going to go to,” Cua said. “It’s time to move on.”
I’m glad these people now understand this. Too bad it took six people to lose their lives for them to figure this out. To figure out they were being misled by a man who cared nothing about them. Time for this ugly chapter to come to a close.