Federal prosecutors have sentenced an off-duty Virginia trooper who was convicted by a jury to eight years in prison. Raid the US Capitol Obstruct Congress from proving President Joe Biden’s 2020 election victory.
Former Rocky Mountain Police Sergeant. Thomas Robertson used his law enforcement training to stop police officers from defending the Capitol from a January 6, 2021 mob attack. Prosecutors said in Thursday’s court filings uphold their sentencing recommendations.
“Instead of using his training and power to advance the public good, he sought to overthrow the government,” they wrote.
The eight-year prison sentence is the longest in hundreds of Capitol riots. The longest so far he is 7 years and 3 months. Guy Liffita Texas man who attacked the Capitol while armed with a holstered handgun.
U.S. District Judge Christopher Cooper is scheduled to make a judgment on Robertson next Thursday. Prosecutors also asked the judge to sentence Robertson to three years of imprisonment followed by supervised release.
Robertson’s attorney, Mark Rollins, said: seek a sentence of less than 27 to 33 months, which is within the sentencing guidelines of imprisonment. Prosecutors have estimated the sentencing guidelines range from 87 months to 108 months for him, but Cooper is not bound by any of these estimates or recommendations.
Robertson did not testify at his trial A jury in April found them guilty of all six charges, including obstructing a Capitol police officer and entering an exclusion zone with a dangerous weapon, a large wooden stick.
According to Robertson’s lawyers, Robertson was shot in the right thigh while working as a Pentagon private contractor in Afghanistan in 2011 and limped, so he used a cane to help him walk. I was using
In the sentencing memo, prosecutors accused Robertson of lying about military service. Although Robertson revealed on his resume that he was a graduate of the U.S. Army Ranger School, prosecutors said his official military records did not support that claim. He said he had lied to reporters about what he had received.
Robertson’s jury trial was the second in a Capitol riot case. Reffitt’s was the first. A jury unanimously convicted seven riot defendants on all charges in their respective indictments.
Robertson moved to Washington, D.C. on the morning of January 6 with his colleague Jacob Flacker and a third male neighbor. Flacker is an off-duty Rocky who was also a Mount Police Officer. He pleaded guilty to conspiracy charges and was scheduled to stand trial alongside Robertson before agreeing to cooperate with authorities.
Flacker testified at Robertson’s trial that he initially believed he was merely trespassing when he entered the Capitol building. pleaded guilty to conspiring with Robertson.
Robertson’s attorneys admitted he broke the law when he entered the Capitol during the riot. He was acquitted of felony charges.
Jurors saw several of Robertson’s posts on social media before and after the Capitol riots. That’s my tough stance,” he said.
“I have spent most of my adult life fighting the rebels. I am writing.
in a letter to the judge, Robertson said he took full responsibility for his actions on January 6 and for “every bad decision I made.” He denounced the acerbic content of the social media posts, which were a mixture of stress, alcohol abuse, and “immersion in a deep ‘rabbit hole’ of election conspiracy theories.”
“I was sitting at night drinking too much and reacting to articles and sites fed to me by the Facebook algorithm,” he wrote.
The town fired Robertson and Flacker after the riots. Rocky Mount is about 40 kilometers (25 miles) south of Roanoke and has a population of about 5,000.
Robertson has been incarcerated since Cooper ruled last year that he violated the terms of his pretrial release by possessing a firearm.
About 850 people have been indicted for federal crimes for acts that took place on January 6. More than 350 of them have pleaded guilty, mostly to misdemeanors, and more than 220 have been convicted so far.