Category: US

Robertson gets credit for the 13 months he has already spent in custody. Robertson has been jailed since Cooper ruled last year that he violated the terms of his pretrial release by possessing firearms.

The judge said he was troubled by Robertson’s conduct since his arrest — not only his stockpiling of guns but also his words advocating for violence. After Jan. 6, Robertson told a friend that he was prepared to fight and die in a civil war and he clung to baseless conspiracy theories that the 2020 election was stolen from then-President Donald Trump, the judge noted.

Sentencing guidelines calculated by Cooper recommended a prison term ranging from seven years and three months to nine years.

“It’s a long time because it reflects the seriousness of the offenses that you were convicted of,” the judge said.

In April, a jury convicted Robertson of attacking the Capitol to obstruct Congress from certifying Joe Biden’s 2020 presidential victory. Jurors found Robertson guilty of all six counts in his indictment, including charges that he interfered with police officers at the Capitol and that he entered a restricted area with a dangerous weapon, a large wooden stick.

Robertson’s lawyers said the Army veteran was using the stick to help him walk because he has a limp from getting shot in the right thigh while working as a private contractor for the Defense Department in Afghanistan in 2011.

The judge said he agreed with jurors that Robertson went to the Capitol to interfere with the joint session of Congress on Jan. 6. Robertson was an “active and willing participant,” not “some bystander” who got swept up in the crowd, Cooper said.

Robertson traveled to Washington on that morning with another off-duty Rocky Mount police officer, Jacob Fracker, and a third man, a neighbor who wasn’t charged in the case.

Fracker was scheduled to be tried alongside Robertson before he pleaded guilty to a conspiracy charge in March and agreed to cooperate with federal authorities. Cooper is scheduled to sentence Fracker next Tuesday.

Prosecutors have asked Cooper to spare Fracker from a prison term and sentence him to six months of probation along with a period of home detention or “community confinement.” They said Fracker’s “fulsome” cooperation and trial testimony was crucial in securing convictions against Robertson.

Robertson’s lawyer, Mark Rollins, sought a prison sentence below two years and three months. He questioned the fairness of the wide gap in sentences that prosecutors recommended for Robertson and Fracker given their similar conduct.

Robertson served his country and community with distinction, his lawyer told the judge.

“His life is already in shambles,” Rollins said.

Robertson and Fracker were among several current or former law enforcement officers who joined in the riot. Prosecutors say Robertson used his law enforcement and military training to block police officers who were trying to hold off the advancing mob.

Assistant US Attorney Elizabeth Aloi said Robertson was prepared for violence when he went to the Capitol and did a “victory lap” inside the building, where he posed for a selfie with Fracker.

“The defendant is, by all accounts, proud of his conduct on Jan. 6,” she said.

Jurors saw some of Robertson’s posts on social media before and after the riot. In a Facebook post on Nov. 7, 2020, Robertson said “being disenfranchised by fraud is my hard line.”

“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,” he wrote.

In a letter addressed to the judge, Robertson said he took full responsibility for his actions on Jan. 6 and “any poor decisions I made.” He blamed the vitriolic content of his social media posts on a mix of stress, alcohol abuse and “submersion in deep ‘rabbit holes’ of election conspiracy theory.”

“I sat around at night drinking too much and reacting to articles and sites given to me by Facebook” algorithms, he wrote.

The town fired Robertson and Fracker after the riot. Rocky Mount is about 25 miles south of Roanoke, Va., and has about 5,000 residents.

Roughly 850 people have been charged with federal crimes for their conduct on Jan. 6. More than 350 of them have pleaded guilty, mostly to misdemeanor offenses, and more than 230 have been sentenced so far.

Robertson’s jury trial was the second for a Capitol riot case; Reffitt’s was the first. Jurors have unanimously convicted seven Capitol rioters of all charges in their respective indictments.

Scott Peterson appeared in a California court on Thursday for prosecutors and attorneys to argue their respective cases over whether the convicted killer deserves a new trial in the 2002 murders of his wife and unborn son. After more than five and a half hours, the day’s proceedings closed with the judge asking both sides to submit memorandums, if they like, by mid-September. The jurist has up to 90 days to release her decision from her.

Peterson, now 49, wore a blue coronavirus face mask, handcuffs and dark orange, jail-issued clothing for the Thursday morning hearing in connection to the potential for a retrial in the 20-year-old case that sent shockwaves through the nation: the slayings of his wife, Laci, and their unborn child, Conner.

The hearing stemmed from defense attorneys’ argument that juror Richelle Nice was biased. They argued Nice lied to get on the jury that convicted Peterson in 2004 and put him on death row for the murders of Laci, 27, and the unborn child they planned to name Conner.

I will be deeply surprised if the court overturns the sentence of Scott Peterson

—Ted Williams, renowned attorney and former homicide detective

the California Supreme Court overturned Peterson’s death sentence in 2020 and tasked Superior Court Judge Anne-Christine Massullo with deciding if he received a fair trial.

LACI PETERSON DISAPPEARED 19 YEARS AGO: THE TRAGIC CASE THAT SENT FAMILY, PUBLIC ON CRUSADE FOR JUSTICE

Massullo argued that Peterson’s attorneys at the time could have asked follow-up questions to clarify some of Nice’s responses. She noted that there were several inconsistencies in the prospective juror questionnaire in the original trial.

During his arguments to the court on Thursday, Peterson attorney Cliff Gardner said Nice contradicted herself in multiple statements, and later changed her answers to certain questions regarding her personal experiences and feelings. I have argued she was inconsistent and uncooperative.

‘IMPORTANT INCONSISTENCIES’

Scott Peterson in a May 11, 2018, photo from the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation.
(California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation via AP, File)

Gardner said Nice refused in 2015 to speak to the defense or the prosecution — and only testified in 2022 because she was granted immunity.

I have pointed to “some important inconsistencies in Ms. Nice’s versions of events, evolution of her versions of events from 2020 to 2020.

“That suggests that she hasn’t been as consistent, like in a witness that we’re going to find credible,” Gardner added.

Richelle Nice adjusts her hair as members of the jury speak with the media in the Old San Mateo County Courthouse in Redwood City, California, on Dec. 13, 2004.
(AP Photo/Lou Dematteis, File)

He added: “She refused to testify unless she was given immunity from prosecution. This is as far from a cooperating witness, I think, as you can get.”

Gardner also said Nice responded “no” to a question asking whether she could base her decision entirely on the evidence produced in court and not from outside or pre-existing opinions or attitudes. Peterson’s attorney at the time, who is no longer involved with the case, did not follow up on this answer.

A young child stops to look at a makeshift memorial and a missing person’s banner offering a $500,000 reward for the safe return of Laci Peterson at East La Loma Park in Modesto, California, on Jan. 4, 2003.
(Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)

CONVICTED MURDERER SCOTT PETERSON’S CALIFORNIA HEARING OVER POSSIBLE RETRIAL DELAYED DUE TO COVID EXPOSURE

Nice then took steps to contact Peterson after convicting him, Gardner said.

“She gave Conner a nickname, called him ‘Little Man,'” he told the court. “She took the extraordinary step after conviction and after having put Mr. Peterson on death row, [of] beginning correspondence with a series of letters. And the court has seen the letters and the letters. Each of them has various focuses, but one of the focuses of every letter is his “Little man.'”

‘REALLY BAD AT FILLING OUT FORMS’

After a trial that attracted nationwide attention, California fertilizer salesman Scott Peterson, 32, was found guilty on Nov. 12, 2004, in the Christmas Eve 2002 murder of his pregnant wife Laci.
(REUTERS/Lou Dematteis LD/MR)

David Harris with the Stanislaus County District Attorney’s Office told the court that Nice, when asked why she considered herself a “fair person,” responded: “I know what it’s like to be judged.”

SCOTT PETERSON TO FACE NEW LIFE SENTENCE IN WIFE LACI PETERSON’S KILLING

The prosecution says Nice was a single mom who had never been on a jury before this trial and thought it would be a part of her civic duty.

The 23-page questionnaire had 163 questions, and “she did the best that she could.”

Scott Peterson reported his pregnant wife, Laci, missing on Christmas Eve 2002 in Modesto, California. Police didn’t eye Peterson as the prime suspect at first, until a string of extramarital affairs were discovered.
(AFP)

Harris says there is no doubt that Nice made mistakes, but that doesn’t make her a liar.

“She’s inconsistent on her answers,” he told the court. “But being wrong does not necessarily make it false or make her a liar. It just might be that she’s really bad at filling out forms.”

Harris later added: “Nice showed sometimes that she could be a little bit confused about things.”

The prosecutor also argued that Nice was not lying when she responded “no” to the original trial’s juror questionnaire about being involved in any lawsuits. A layperson, he said, might misuse or misunderstand legal terminology.

Juror Richelle Nice, center, hugs attorney Gloria Allred after speaking at a news conference after the formal sentencing of Scott Peterson in Redwood City, California, on March 16, 2005.
(AP Photo/Jeff Chiu, File)

“How many times have we heard jurors sit in the box and say, ‘my house was robbed’?” he said, providing an example for his argument from it. “A house can’t be legally robbed, so they’re wrong. But they’re telling you what they believe is the circumstances in that particular case. It was a burglary. It was not a robbery. So they’re wrong about what the crime is. That does not make them a liar.”

Peterson’s attorneys disputed Harris’ claims by presenting a transcript of Nice acknowledging that what she had filed was a lawsuit.

Harris further pointed to the evidence police had garnered against Peterson during the course of his investigation into Laci’s and Conner’s deaths.

“From the simple fact that Laci and Conner, whose bodies washed ashore 90 miles from their home, but within sight of where Peterson admitted he went fishing on the day that they disappeared; to the research Peterson did on bay currents in the weeks preceding her disappearance; and the fishing boat he bought, but mentioned [to] not one; to Peterson’s inability to explain what he was fishing for in the middle of the day; to his repeated subsequent, serendipitous trips to the marina in the weeks after her disappearance of her; to the many steps he took in the weeks after she went missing – selling her car de ella, exploring leaving the house, turning the nursery into a storage room – that indicated that he already knew Laci and Conner were never coming back, “Harris said.

Nice was an alternate juror who joined the jury deliberations after two original jurors were removed. The panel ultimately found Peterson guilty in 2004 of the first-degree murder in the death of his wife and the second-degree murder of their unborn son. He was sentenced to death in 2005.

Peterson’s attorneys contend, among other things, that Nice sought to be on the jury because she wanted notoriety and for financial reasons. They have also argued that she lied about her lack of bias to get on the jury, and she lied again in a sworn declaration in 2020.

Authorities search the Berkeley Marina, where Laci Peterson’s husband Scott said he was fishing at when she went missing.
(AP)

Peterson’s attorneys have argued that Nice’s nickname for Conner, “little man,” was among several indications that she was biased against their client.

SCOTT PETERSON’S FORMER DEFENSE COUNSEL TOUTS NEW EVIDENCE: ‘I REALLY BELIEVE IN SCOTT’S INNOCENCE’

And a former fellow juror testified in March that Nice walked into the jury room during deliberations in 2004 and blurted out “that he should basically pay for killing ‘little man.'”

Nice testified earlier that she held no bias against Peterson until after she heard the evidence that he dumped his wife’s body into San Francisco Bay on Christmas Eve 2002.

Nice failed to disclose during jury selection that she sought a restraining order while pregnant in 2000, saying she “really fears for her unborn child” because of threats from her boyfriend’s ex-girlfriend.

She said in her sworn statement 20 years later that she didn’t “feel ‘victimized’ the way the law might define that term.”

‘NOT GOING TO BE EASY’

Renowned attorney and former homicide detective Ted Williams, who has been following the ongoing proceedings, told Fox News Digital during Thursday’s lunch break that the defense team has “a high bar to get Scott Peterson’s sentence overturned.”

“I believe here that even if you had a juror who did not properly answer on the questionnaire, that in and of itself is not enough to get a sentence overturned,” said Williams, who is also a Fox News contributor. “Unless they can show … that she, by virtue of what she had to say, was able to influence all the jurors other than just [by] participating as a juror, that also will not get this verdict overturned.”

Williams said he was “deeply concerned” and had personal experience as an attorney in trying to have a jury verdict tossed.

“They have got to show that what this juror did prejudiced the case against Scott Peterson so that he was found guilty predicated and based upon anything she specifically did,” he went on. “That’s not going to be easy.”

The evidence against Peterson, Williams said, was “overwhelming.”

“Scott Peterson is lucky because everything that I know about this case leads me to believe that Scott Peterson should be on death row rather than serving the rest of his life in a cell,” he added.

Williams said he believed each side was putting on “a very good case.” He called Gardner “vociferous” in making his points about him, and said he was “dealing with the law as best he can.”

He added: “I will be deeply surprised if the court overturns the sentence of Scott Peterson and gives him a new trial.”

CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP

Fox News’ Laura Prabucki and The Associated Press contributed to this report.

• Many of Trump’s GOP allies have clamored for the DOJ to release its Mar-a-Lago search warrant and supporting documentation.
• On Thursday, the DOJ moved to do just that, asking a court to unseal portions of the warrant.
• Legal experts and political strategists say Trump’s backers bit off more than they could chew and the DOJ called their bluff.

Former President Donald Trump’s allies have spent this week clamoring for the Justice Department to release details from its search warrant for Mar-a-Lago and other supporting documentation.

Now, it looks like they might get what they asked for.

Attorney General Merrick Garland announced Thursday at a news conference that the Justice Department has filed a motion to unseal portions of the warrant following Trump’s “public confirmation of the search.”

But legal experts and political strategists warn that Trump’s allies may have bitten off more than they could chew and that the maneuver could ultimately backfire on the former president and his party as this year’s midterm elections loom.

“Republican strategists have no clue how bad this is gonna be yet,” said Luis Alvarado, a longtime GOP consultant.

Right-wing reactions in the wake of the Mar-a-Lago raid have failed into one of two camps.

Many of Trump’s more hardline supporters — like House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthyFlorida Rep. Matt Gaetz, and Georgia Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene — threatened to investigate the Justice Department and issued calls to “defund” the FBI.

Other Republicans, including former Vice President Mike Pence, Texas Sen. Ted Cruz, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, and Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan, have asked the Justice Department to publicly talk about his investigation into Trump.

Cruz issued a tweet demanding that the department “RELEASE THE WARRANT NOW.”

“The American people deserve to see it,” Cruz wrote. “NOW.”

But Alvarado expressed skepticism toward those demands.

“They were saying it and crossing their fingers and hoping they don’t turn around and release that information immediately,” Insider told. “Because right now, we still have primaries that are happening around the country. And they don’t want that to fill the space.”

Fox Business’ Charles Gasparino tweeted on Wednesday that Trump’s own legal team would “likely seek a court order to force the @FBI and @TheJusticeDept to turn over a physical copy of the search warrant, the affidavit, and a complete inventory of what was taken in the Mar-a-Lago raid .”

The department’s motion on Thursday rendered that option moot.

“This is a big fucking deal,” one former DOJ official, who requested anonymity to candidly discuss the subject, said of the request to unseal. “Never happens. It’s unheard of.”

But the attorney general likely made an exception in this case “because of everything that’s been going on the last few days, including Trump himself and his backers crying foul, accusing the FBI of planting evidence, what have you,” the former official said.

“There is a heightened level of interest in this,” they added. “There’s a relevance here because it really does go to the heart of the system. It’s not just people throwing stones at DOJ and FBI, they’ve gotten that for decades. This is a systemic questioning of DOJ and FBI by the former president, a fair number of elected officials, and the population.”

Garland calls Republicans’ bluff

Shortly after the department’s motion was filed Thursday, magistrate judge Bruce Reinhart ordered the DOJ to confer with Trump’s lawyers and let the court know by Friday afternoon if Trump’s team agrees with or objects to the government’s request to unseal.

In other words, the department’s motion will force Trump to put up or shut up.

“Brilliant move by Garland: make motion to unseal everything including material Trump has already (warrant and return); so now the ball is in his court to object or consent,” Andrew Weissmann, a former FBI general counsel who later worked on the Mueller investigation, tweeted after Garland’s news conference. “Called Trump’s bluff.”

David Weinstein, a Miami criminal defense attorney and former prosecutor, told Insider that even if the department’s motion to unseal is denied, Republicans could still regret pressing the DOJ because it will inadvertently put more pressure on Trump and his lawyers to produce their copy of the search warrant.

Multiple people on Trump’s team, including his son Eric, awning Gasparino that they did not get copies of the warrant or supporting documentation. But Garland debunked that claim Thursday, saying copies of both the warrant and the FBI receipt were given to Trump’s counsel.

“Trump and his lawyers have a copy of the search warrant that lists exactly what laws the FBI believes and the Department of Justice believes have been violated,” Weinstein said. “So if they wanted to show that to the world, they’re afraid to do so. And quite frankly, if it was just the presidential records, I think they’d be waving it around like an American flag.”

Gene Rossi, a longtime former federal prosecutor, also told Insider this week that he would be “shocked” if the affidavit supporting the warrant didn’t include probable cause suggesting Trump violated other laws including statutes against obstruction, insurrection, sedition, and more.

“You only get one shot at doing a search of Donald Trump’s home,” he said. “The Department of Justice is not going to blow their wad, in my view, on just looking at… the records statute.”

Ultimately, said the former DOJ official, Trump “talked himself into” the department moving to unseal its Mar-a-Lago search warrant.

“The old axiom by lawyers is that you want a client to shut the hell up,” the former official added. “That doesn’t apply to this president. So while he and his supporters are screaming about what the FBI took, the DOJ’s saying, ‘You know exactly what they took. You’ve got a piece of paper that says what they took. But you want the world to know? Fine.'”