After just hours of deliberations, a jury found a former police officer guilty of charges related to the January 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol.
Robertson was found guilty on all six charges, including obstruction of an official proceeding and being on Capitol grounds with a dangerous weapon.
Robertson was arrested by the FBI a week after the January 6 attack in southwest Virginia on charges of illegally entering the Capitol as Congress prepared to certify Joe Biden's electoral victory. During the weeklong trial, federal prosecutors displayed images and video, including police body cam footage, showing Robertson outside the Capitol with a wooden stick, and later entering the building with a fellow police officer.
Risa Berkower, the prosecutor, said in a closing argument that the defendants gleefully put himself in the thick of the initial crowd of rioters who set off hours of chaos in the Capitol.
She said that he was proud of what he did.
The Robertson was guilty of some of the less serious charges he faced, but he was not guilty of the dangerous weapon charge, according to the defense lawyer. Robertson's defense team argued that he was using the stick as a walking stick and not a baton as the prosecutors claimed.
The trial turned on the jurors' views of Robertson's physical abilities. Robertson referred to the stick in the trunk of his car as a flag pole, rather than a walking stick, according to prosecutors.
The fitness requirements for police officers were underscored in the questioning of the former town manager. If you were to look at the police force in Rocky Mount, Virginia, you would find many that could use some weight reduction.
Robertson boasted about being able to run a 16 minute 2 mile with a 30lb pack in a message sent in April 2021.
He wrote that he was as dangerous as he would ever be.
Robertson held the stick in the so-called Port arms position, a defensive stance from which he could still cause harm. A police officer testified that he thought the stick could be used to hit someone upside the head and knock them unconscious.
Robertson's military career may have contributed to his grip on the stick.
The obstruction of an official proceeding charge carries a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison, but the conduct of rioters who violently pressed toward the House floor contrasted with Robertson's minutes-long stay inside the Capitol.
He said that prosecutors had imputed that conduct onto Robertson, almost as though there was a group of people who were gung ho.
"These clowns are still trying to come in", he said, as he displayed video footage of rioters pushing against police.
He told jurors that Mr. Robertson was long gone.
A federal judge dealt the Justice Department's first trial setback in more than 700 prosecutions stemming from January 6.
Matthew Martin, a New Mexico engineer, was found not guilty on a pair of charges, in the first acquittal of a January 6 defendant.
The claim that police allowed Martin inside the Capitol wasplausible, and prosecutors failed to prove their case beyond a reasonable doubt.
In a previous bench trial, where a judge, rather than a jury, reviews evidence and hands down a verdict, the Cowboys for Trump leader was acquitted on a separate charge.
A jury convicted Guy Reffitt, a member of the Three Percenters militia, in the first trial arising from the January 6 attack.
The testimony from Reffitt's teenage son showed how the January 6 attack has divided families and friends. January 6 was showcased in the proceedings against Robertson.
On Wednesday, a former colleague of Robertson's recalled accompanying him to the Capitol on January 6 after attending a pro-Trump rally. The former officer, Jacob Fracker, was arrested the same day as Robertson, and both were fired by the police department.
Fracker described Robertson as his mentor and his sergeant. He testified that the two referred to each other by their nickname.
Fracker said on the witness stand that he hated this.
He said that he has always been on the other side of things.
Fracker testified as part of a plea deal after admitting to a charge of conspiring to obstruct the joint session of Congress.
Fracker said he was ashamed of his involvement in the January 6 attack. On January 6, he felt full ofadrenaline.
Fracker testified that he felt like they had been heard by whoever it was that they needed to be heard.
Fracker flashed the middle finger as he posed with Robertson for a picture inside the Capitol. Fracker said he gave his cellphone to Robertson.
At trial, prosecutors showed text messages in which Robertson said their phones were destroyed and that they took a lake swim.
Robertson bragged about his involvement in January 6 and used inflammatory rhetoric in other messages and social media posts. A legitimate republic stands on four boxes: the soap box, the ballot box, the jury box, and the cartridge box, he wrote in one message before January 6.
Berkower made an allusion to that message during her closing argument on Friday.
She said that no one is above the law in this country.
In our democracy, we don't decide elections with a box.
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