WASHINGTON — An off-duty police officer stormed the U.S. Capitol as a result of he believed the 2020 presidential election was stolen from Donald Trump and he needed to intrude with the certification of President Joe Biden’s electoral victory, a federal prosecutor stated Tuesday in the beginning of the Virginia man’s trial.
However a protection legal professional instructed jurors that former Rocky Mount, Virginia, police officer Thomas Robertson solely went into the Capitol as a result of he needed to retrieve a fellow officer who had entered the constructing earlier than him in the course of the riot on Jan. 6, 2021.
Jacob Fracker, the opposite off-duty Rocky Mount police officer who entered the Capitol that day, may very well be a key witness for prosecutors at Robertson’s trial. Robertson was a mentor and a father determine to Fracker, attorneys stated throughout their opening statements.
Two different Capitol riot defendants have already got been tried on federal costs arising from the Jan. 6 siege. The primary two trials each ended with convictions, though a decide acquitted a type of defendants of a disorderly conduct cost.
One other trial for a Capitol riot case began Tuesday. Whereas jurors heard testimony for Robertson’s trial, U.S. District Choose Trevor McFadden heard testimony with out a jury for the case towards Matthew Martin, who has labored for a authorities contractor on the Nationwide Laboratory in Los Alamos, New Mexico.
Martin, who’s accused of remaining contained in the Capitol for about 10 minutes, testified that he noticed a police officer wave him into the constructing. He additionally stated he adopted the group into the constructing.
“I went with the circulate,” stated Martin, whose trial is scheduled to renew on Wednesday.
Fracker was set to be tried alongside Robertson this week, however he pleaded responsible final month to a riot-related conspiracy cost and agreed to cooperate with federal authorities.
Assistant U.S. Lawyer Elizabeth Aloi stated Robertson was armed with a big wood stick and carrying a gasoline masks when he and Fracker joined the mob that overwhelmed cops and breached the Capitol.
“His intent was to intrude with the election as a result of it didn’t have the consequence that he needed,” Aloi stated.
Protection legal professional Camille Wagner stated Robertson, whom she known as “T.J.,” knew that he had entered restricted areas of the Capitol the place he wasn’t alleged to be on Jan. 6. However he is not accused of partaking in any violence or property destruction, she famous.
“All T.J. did was enter, retrieve, depart,” Wagner stated.
Robertson used a big wood persist with impede cops who have been attempting to carry off the mob, in line with prosecutors. Police physique digital camera video captured his interplay with police.
Wagner stated Robertson did not wield the stick as a weapon. She stated the U.S. Army veteran was utilizing it as a strolling stick as a result of he nonetheless has a limp from getting shot in the suitable thigh whereas working as a non-public contractor for the U.S. Protection Division in Afghanistan in 2011.
Robertson is charged with six counts, together with obstruction of an official continuing, civil dysfunction, getting into and remaining in a restricted constructing whereas utilizing a harmful weapon and disorderly conduct in a Capitol constructing. 5 of the counts relate to his actions on Jan. 6. The sixth stems from his alleged post-riot destruction of cellphones belonging to him and Fracker.
Fracker pleaded responsible to conspiring to impede an official continuing, the joint session of Congress to certify the Electoral Faculty vote.
Aloi stated Fracker is ashamed of his conduct on the Capitol and is “not the identical individual at this time that he was on Jan. 6.”
Robertson and Fracker each served as cops in Rocky Mount. The city, which is about 25 miles south of Roanoke and has roughly 5,000 residents, fired each of them after their arrests.
“He held a place of public belief,” Aloi stated. “He broke that public belief when he participated within the assault on the Capitol.”
Robertson and Fracker drove with a neighbor to Washington on the morning of Jan. 6. Robertson introduced three gasoline masks for them to make use of, in line with prosecutors.
After listening to speeches close to the Washington Monument, Fracker, Robertson and the neighbor walked towards the Capitol, donned the gasoline masks and joined the rising mob, prosecutors stated. Robertson stopped to assist his neighbor, who was having bother respiratory. Fracker broke off and entered the constructing earlier than Robertson, however they reunited contained in the Capitol.
Aloi confirmed jurors a few of Robertson’s vitriolic posts on social media earlier than and after the Capitol riot. In a Fb submit on Nov. 7, 2020, Robertson stated “being disenfranchised by fraud is my exhausting line.”
“I’ve spent most of my grownup life preventing a counter insurgency. (I am) about to change into a part of one, and a really efficient one,” he wrote.
Robertson was not “charged for his beliefs,” Aloi stated.
“He was charged for his actions,” she instructed jurors.
Wagner stated Robertson needs to be judged by his actions, not his phrases.
“We ask you to do not forget that actions converse louder than phrases,” she instructed jurors.
A Capitol police officer was the primary witness to testify at Robertson’s trial. Capt. Ronald Ortega stated the mob “severely outnumbered” officers who have been attempting to carry again the group.
“It simply appeared unreal on the time,” Ortega stated.
Robertson has been jailed since U.S. District Choose Christopher Cooper dominated in July that he violated the phrases of his pretrial launch by possessing firearms.
On March 8, a jury determined the primary Capitol riot trial by convicting a Texas man, Man Reffitt, of storming the Capitol with a holstered handgun. Within the second trial, the identical decide listening to testimony on Tuesday in Martin’s case convicted New Mexico county official Couy Griffin of illegally getting into restricted U.S. Capitol grounds however acquitted him of partaking in disorderly conduct.
Reffitt and Griffin entered restricted areas exterior the Capitol however not the constructing itself.
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