WASHINGTON — A former Virginia police officer took the witness stand for two hours on Wednesday to testify against the fellow officer he’d been so close to before Jan. 6 he referred to him as “dad.”
Prosecutors called Jacob Fracker as a key witness in their case against Thomas Robertson, who began trial Monday on multiple felony charges in connection with the Jan. 6 Capitol riot. Fracker said he met Robertson while they were both employed by the Rocky Mount Police Department – where Robertson was his trainer and supervising officer.
Fracker was notably uncomfortable on the stand, speaking in quiet, terse sentences as he answered questions about how he and Robertson came to be at the U.S. Capitol Building on Jan. 6. Fracker said Robertson had not been shy about his belief that the 2020 election was “stolen” and had asked him days before to travel with him to D.C. on Jan. 6.
Robertson, Fracker said, made all the plans. He packed the gas masks and the large stick he would eventually use to allegedly impede police at the Capitol. Jurors heard testimony from multiple officers that Robertson appeared to be holding the stick in the “port arms” pose police are trained to use in riot response classes.
Fracker pleaded guilty last month to one felony count of conspiracy to commit obstruction of an official proceeding. On Wednesday, prosecutors went over the conditions of that plea deal, which included testifying against Robertson, in court.
“Could you tell us how you’re feeling about being here today?” assistant U.S. attorney Risa Berkower asked him.
“I absolutely hate this,” he said. “I never thought it would be like this. I’ve always been on the other side of things. The good guys’ side, so to speak.”
Fracker said he entered the Capitol thinking if they “made enough fuss” that Congress would have to overturn the results of the 2020 election. By that point, he said, he and Robertson had become separated. On Tuesday, Robertson’s attorney told jurors her client had entered the building to “retrieve” Fracker.
Once inside, the two men eventually found each other and posed for a selfie in front of a statute. Fracker said they eventually left the Capitol after deciding they’d been “heard” by Congress.
After returning home and learning a few days later that there were warrants for their arrest, Fracker testified that he gave Robertson his phone to get rid of it. Fracker said he was “terrified about the videos and pictures” the FBI might find on it. Prosecutors showed jurors a message earlier in the day Robertson purportedly wrote bragging about taking "a lake swim” with his phone to destroy evidence.
The defense’s cross-examination of Fracker was set to begin Thursday morning at 9 a.m.
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