WASHINGTON — A former Virginia police officer who stormed the U.S. Capitol because he believed then-President Donald Trump's lies about the 2020 election had more than a year shaved off his prison sentence Wednesday in the wake of a Supreme Court ruling on an obstruction charge that has been used against hundreds of Jan. 6 defendants.
Thomas Robertson was re-sentenced to six years, or 72 months, in federal prison by U.S. District Judge Christopher Cooper. The re-sentencing hearing came after the Supreme Court in June sided with a Jan. 6 defendant who challenged the obstruction of justice charge used against him and fellow accused rioters. The Supreme Court's ruling was only expected to have a major impact on a few dozen rioters whose sole felony conviction was on the obstruction charge. But Robertson was convicted of other felony charges, including a charge of interfering with officers during civil disorder.
Robertson was originally sentenced in August 2022 to more than seven years in federal prison, which at the time tied the record for the longest sentence handed down to any Jan. 6 defendant. In the two years since Robertson's sentence, several extremists including members of the Proud Boys and the Oath Keepers have been convicted and sentenced to far longer federal prison terms: Proud Boys Chairman Enrique Tarrio was sentenced to 22 years; violent Jan. 6 rioter David Dempsey was sentenced to 20 years; and Oath Keepers founder Stewart Rhodes was sentenced to 18 years.
At trial, Robertson's co-defendant and fellow former police officer Jacob Fracker testified that the duo went to Washington on Jan. 6, hoping to overturn the election and believing that the officers who protected the Capitol "should have been on our side."
Robertson was convicted of the felony obstruction charge related to his efforts to stop the certification of the election and federal prosecutors moved during the hearing Wednesday to dismiss his conviction on just that charge in the wake of the Supreme Court ruling.
The remainder of his convictions stand, however. Unlike most other defendants, Robertson was also convicted of a separate obstruction charge because he destroyed evidence after the attack, with Fracker testifying that he saw Robertson place their phones into an ammo can. Robertson wrote, in evidence cited by the government, that the phones "took a lake swim" and "had a tragic boating accident" before the duo surrendered to federal authorities.
"They asked about my phone but I'm not a retard," Robertson said after his arrest, federal prosecutors said.
In court Wednesday, a federal prosecutor argued that Robertson's destruction of evidence impeded the federal investigation and prevented the government from discovering the involvement of a third man — a neighbor Assistant U.S. Attorney Elizabeth Ann Aloi referred to as "Pat" — in Fracker and Robertson's scheme. Fracker, prosecutors said, only informed federal prosecutors of the involvement of "Pat" after he agreed to testify against Robertson. "Pat" held onto Robertson’s weapons after his arrest and still has not been charged in connection with the Jan. 6 attack, Aloi said.
Trump acknowledged this week that he "lost" the 2020 election and later claimed during the same interview that the election "was a fraud." In reality, Trump lost the popular vote by more than 7 million votes and lost the Electoral College by a significant margin, securing 232 votes to Joe Biden's 306.
While some Jan. 6 defendants have told federal judges that they regret that they were gullible enough to fall for the lies Trump spread about the 2020 election, which motivated them to storm the Capitol, Trump has not retracted his false claims that the election was stolen from him.
Trump is currently facing four federal felony charges related to his efforts to overturn his 2020 election loss, which culminated in the violent siege on the U.S. Capitol and interrupted America's history of peaceful transfers of power. A federal grand jury returned an indictment last month alleging that Trump knowingly lied about the 2020 election by spreading claims that “were unsupported, objectively unreasonable, and ever-changing.” Trump has indicated that his lawyers will enter a not guilty plea on his behalf during a hearing in that case Thursday.
