Ex-Cop/Jan 6 Rioter Given 7+ Years Prison For Role In Capitol Attack

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A former police officer in the small Virginia town of Rocky Mount was sentenced on Thursday to 87 months in prison, or a little over seven years, for his role in the Capitol riot.

The newly sentenced rioter is Thomas Robertson, who was found guilty at a jury trial earlier this year of six criminal offenses including five felonies. The felony offenses of which Robertson was found guilty include obstruction of an official proceeding, disorderly and disruptive conduct in a restricted building while carrying a dangerous weapon, tampering with a document or proceedings, and more. Although Robertson, who was still on the Rocky Mount police force at the time, and a fellow officer from the department brought their firearms with them to the nation’s capital, they left those behind in their vehicle. Robertson, however, carried a large wooden stick — which he described to authorities as a flagpole but which prosecutors noted never actually seemed to carry a flag during the riot.

Robertson used that large stick in a confrontation with officers in which he unsuccessfully attempted to stop the officers, who were with the D.C. Metropolitan Police Department, from proceeding. He and the other Rocky Mount officer, Jacob Fracker — both of whom were later fired — eventually made it inside the Capitol building. Fracker struck a plea deal with prosecutors and testified during Robertson’s recent trial, and Fracker says he’s faced antagonism over his decision. In a letter to the court connected to Robertson’s case, Fracker said community members deemed him a “rat,” “snitch,” and “back stabber” for his testimony at trial.

Robertson, meanwhile, has a history of lying, which prosecutors noted in court arguments related to his sentencing. Robertson previously claimed across various interactions that he served as an infantryman, sniper, and sergeant, before later receiving a Bronze Star and Purple Heart — none of which is proven to have actually happened. Robertson spent time overseas with the Virginia National Guard and was injured while subsequently in Afghanistan as a contractor, but contractors are not eligible to become Purple Heart recipients. Robertson also seemingly lied to the court: he claimed incendiary social media posts before the riot were connected to alcohol abuse and time spent away from his wife, who was working in New York, but his wife didn’t go to New York until after the riot. Notably, the timing of some of Robertson’s social media remarks means if they were the product of alcohol abuse he was getting intoxicated just before or while working a police shift, an FBI agent said.

Federal Judge Christopher Cooper, who handled Robertson’s sentencing this week, remarked to the defendant: “You were not some bystander who just got swept up in the crowd… It really seems as though you think of partisan politics as war and that you continue to believe these conspiracy theories.” Robertson’s sentence is the same length as that delivered to fellow rioter Guy Reffitt; the two sentences are tied for the longest imposed on any Capitol riot participants so far. Robertson also expressed a continuing willingness to perpetrate lethal violence even after coming under federal law enforcement scrutiny over the Capitol riot. “If they come here again, many will die. Possibly me, definitely many of them,” Robertson wrote via text to an associate after federal agents searched his property early last year. Relatedly, Cooper indicated a belief Robertson would be willing to participate in further violence. “I sincerely believe you would answer a call to duty if something like this were to happen again,” the judge said.