WASHINGTON — A D.C. jury was presented Tuesday afternoon with two portraits of a former Virginia police officer charged in the Capitol riot.
In one, drawn by prosecutors, Robertson was an ardent supporter of former President Donald Trump who spent the weeks before Jan. 6 pumping himself to join what he described as an “insurgency” and an “open armed rebellion.”
On Facebook, assistant U.S. attorney Liz Lois said, Robertson wrote, “I’ve spent most of my adult life fighting a counter insurgency. I’m about to become part of one, and a very effective one.”
In the other portrait, defense attorney Camille Wagner described a Robertson – who she referred to as “T.J.” – who had served his country admirably and who only entered the Capitol to help a friend. Wagner told jurors Robertson had worked as a Department of Defense contractor in the Middle East and had been seriously injured during an ambush in Afghanistan. The injury left him with a limp and was why, she said, he brought a walking stick with him on Jan. 6.
When he went inside the Capitol, he simply “entered, retrieved and departed,” Wagner said. The retrieval was of his friend and fellow officer, Jacob Fracker, who accepted a plea deal last month and will be testifying against him at trial.
The verdict in the case will hang on which portrait of Robertson jurors find more convincing. Was he angry and so unwilling to accept a political loss that he was prepared for violence on Jan. 6? Or was he a wounded veteran exercising his First Amendment rights and looking out for a friend?
Fracker’s testimony, which was expected to come later in the week, will likely be key to that decision. As part of his plea agreement, Fracker agreed to testify that he and Robertson brought gas masks and other tactical gear and then forcibly pushed past police to enter the Senate Wing Door on Jan. 6. He was also expected to testify that Robertson used his large wooden walking stick to impede Capitol Police.
It was unclear whether jurors would hear about the 37 firearms Robertson purchased while under federal indictment – a decision that ultimately led to him being ordered back into pretrial detention. While federal law prohibits anyone under federal indictment for a crime punishable by more than one year from shipping or transporting firearms or ammunition, to date, Robertson has not been charged with additional counts in relation to the purchase.
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