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Washington — A 2021 A former Virginia State Police sergeant, who joined Donald Trump supporters in storming the Capitol on Jan. 6, was sentenced Thursday to seven years and three months in prison, a Justice Department spokesman said. Stated.
An April jury named Thomas Robertson, a former police sergeant in his Mount town of Rocky, Virginia, on six criminal charges against him, including obstruction of official process and obstruction of justice. handed down a guilty verdict.
Prosecutors asked U.S. District Judge Christopher Cooper to sentence Robertson to his eight-year sentence on the grounds that Robertson abused his position of trust as a law enforcement officer. I asked.
Robertson and Guy Refitt, an associate of the far-right Three Percentile militia, who was also sentenced to seven years and three months earlier this month, said: Currently, it is tied in the longest sentence. To this day for the Capitol riot defendants.
Thousands of Trump supporters stormed the Capitol on January 6 in an attempt to overturn his election defeat. Trump falsely claims that this is the result of fraud.
Robertson's attorneys sought a sentence of up to 15 months.
He has been in custody since last year after a judge discovered he violated a court order and continued to buy what prosecutors called an "arsenal" of guns online. FBI agents also found a loaded M4 rifle and a partially assembled pipe bomb in his home during a search. The testimony of Jacob Flacker, who reported to Robertson about the police, entered the Capitol on January 6, 2021 and took a selfie with him.
Prosecutors said Robertson later destroyed the mobile phone he used that day.
Fracker, who cooperated with the Justice Department, pleaded guilty to conspiracy in March and is expected to be sentenced on 16 August. In exchange for his cooperation, the prosecutor asks the judge to decide. He will be on probation for six months under the condition of community custody or home detention.
Prosecutors said Robertson said he "anticipated violence" on January 6, and that he and Fracker had gas masks, military food rations, water, and large trees. stuffed with sticks.
Robertson "used his law enforcement training to thwart Metropolitan Police officers from trying to suppress a mob," said federal prosecutor Elizabeth Aloy. wrote in the government judgment memo.
In a letter to the judge, Robertson said he would take "full responsibility" for his actions on January 6, adding that during the trial, "many pro-Trump, anti-Biden have been exposed to the media of He spends 2020 with a friend who has cancer.
He drank to deal with stress and fell deep into "a rabbit hole of election conspiracy theories," he said.
However, he denied any "intention to disrupt Congress" and claimed that Fracker had actually destroyed the cell phone, which he later lied to the FBI and the courts about. (Reporting by Sarah N. Lynch; Editing by Scott Malone, Peter Graff, Matthew Lewis)