WASHINGTON – A retired Chester firefighter has pleaded guilty to his role in the riot and insurrection that temporarily halted the 2020 presidential election certification at the nation’s capital on Jan. 6, 2021.
Robert Sanford Jr., 57, pleaded guilty Friday before U.S. District Judge Paul L. Friedman of the District of Columbia to assaulting, resisting, or impeding officers using a dangerous weapon, according to online court documents.
FBI photo
Retired Chester Fire Department firefighter Robert Sanford in this still from a video taken at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6. His “CFD” or Chester Fire Department cap was a major clue that led to his arrest. (COURTESY OF FEDERAL AUTHORITIES)
Sanford faces a maximum 20 years in prison and $250,000 fine for the offense at sentencing, scheduled for Jan. 17, though defense attorney Andrew M. Stewart said Tuesday that he expects the guidelines will be quite a bit lower.
A pre-sentence report is still being generated, but Stewart expects the calculations might be somewhere in the range of 46 to 63 months.
Tipster calls in
Sanford was arrested Jan. 14, 2021, on charges of assaulting, resisting, or impeding officers engaged in the performance of official duties, knowingly entering or remaining in a restricted building or grounds without lawful authority, disorderly or disruptive conduct on Capitol grounds and civil disorder.
He had been identified in a tip to federal authorities two days earlier.
The tipster indicated that Sanford was a longtime friend and had told them he was the person the FBI was looking for. The tipster also identified Sanford from a video still image and provided a recorded statement to FBI special agents that Sanford acknowledged travelled to Washington on a bus with a group of people.
“The group had gone to the White House and listened to President Donald J. Trump’s speech and then had followed the president’s instructions and gone to the Capitol,” according to a criminal complaint filed in his case by FBI Special Agent Samad D. Shahrani.
Trump and others pushed a narrative of fraudulent voting in the election for months leading up to the Jan. 6 insurrection that left five dead, including a Capitol police officer and an insurrectionist.
Trump and allies also filed dozens of lawsuits in state and federal courts looking to overturn results that went for Democrat Joe Biden.
None of those suits prevailed, save for a Pennsylvania ruling affecting a small number of voters who were not allowed to “cure” their ballots. Investigations of the election carried out by numerous agencies, including the U.S. Attorney General’s Office have found no credible allegations of fraud that would have changed the outcome of the election.
Thrown at police
Court documents state that Sanford was among a group of people on the Capital’s Lower West Terrace when he threw a fire extinguisher at a group of Capitol Police officers, striking three of them in the head.
“The object appears to strike one officer, who was wearing a helmet, in the head,” according to the complaint. “The object then ricochets and strikes another officer, who was not wearing a helmet, in the head. The object then ricochets a third time and strikes a third officer, wearing a helmet, in the head. Immediately after throwing the object, (Sanford) moves quickly in the opposite direction.”
One of the officers reported feeling a “hard strike” to the back of his helmet and saw a fire extinguisher on the ground, but could not tell who had struck him, according to the complaint. He was evaluated at a local hospital and returned to duty, the complaint says.
The complaint includes still shots from a video that authorities say are of Sanford wearing a Chester Fire Department hat and throwing the fire extinguisher. He also allegedly threw a traffic cone in the direction of officers and screamed that they were “traitors.”
Sanford allegedly told the tipster he was on the Capitol grounds for about 10 minutes before “they” left, but did not elaborate on who “they” were and did not mention having thrown any objects, according to the complaint.
Accepting responsibility
Sanford was a member of the Chester Fire Department from January 1994 until his retirement in February 2020, according to a prior statement from Chester Mayor Thaddeus Kirkland. The Chester Firefighters IAFF Local 1400 also issued a statement that it “unequivocally condemn(s) these acts of violence.”
Sanford had been released on his own recognizance with GPS since March 2021, but the judge revoked that status following the plea and he was recommitted to a detention facility awaiting sentencing.
“This is the first step in his acceptance of responsibility for what happened on Jan. 6 and also with him sort of moving on from a lot of the politics associated with Jan. 6 as well,” Stewart said Tuesday. “At least for Mr. Sanford, he’s expressed quite a bit of remorse for his actions on that day. I think when we file our papers on sentencing it will be clear that that conduct was very much an anomaly. He is a firefighter, he’s a family man — as are many of the people who got caught up in Jan. 6 — and he is very much looking forward to apologizing, accepting responsibility and moving on with his life, becoming a positive contributor to his community again.”
Sanford is the second Delaware County man to plead in the Jan. 6 riot and the 38th Pennsylvania resident convicted.
Richard Michetti, 29, Ridley Park, was sentenced to nine months in a federal prison earlier this month after pleading guilty to aiding and abetting obstruction of an official proceeding in May. He has also been ordered to serve two years of supervised release and pay $2,000 restitution.
Brian Healion, 32, of Upper Darby, an alleged member of the Proud Boys, is scheduled for a status hearing Nov. 1 before Magistrate Judge Robin M. Meriweather. He is charged with unlawful entry on restricted buildings and grounds, as well as violent entry and disorderly conduct on Capitol grounds. Healion is free on his own recognizance.
in the past 20 months, more than 870 people from nearly all 50 states have been arrested for their alleged roles in the breach at the Capitol, according to federal prosecutors. The investigation remains open and anyone with information on the events of that day is urged to contact the FBI at 1-800-CALL-FBI (800-225-5324) or tips.fbi.gov.