An off-duty police officer stormed the U.S. Capitol because he believed the 2020 presidential election was stolen from Donald Trump and he wanted to interfere with the certification of President Joe Biden’s electoral victory, a federal prosecutor said Tuesday at the start of the Virginia man’s trial.
But a defense attorney told jurors that former Rocky Mount, Virginia, police officer Thomas Robertson only went into the Capitol because he wanted to retrieve a fellow officer who had entered the building before him during the riot on Jan. 6, 2021.
Jacob Fracker, the other off-duty Rocky Mount police officer who entered the Capitol that day, could be a key witness for prosecutors at Robertson’s trial. Robertson was a mentor and a father figure to Fracker, attorneys said during their opening statements.
Two other Capitol riot defendants already have been tried on federal charges arising from the Jan. 6 siege. The first two trials both ended with convictions, although a judge acquitted one of those defendants of a disorderly conduct charge.
