Montco martial arts gym owner Jim Robinson charged in Jan. 6 Capitol attack

A Montgomery County gymnasium proprietor mentioned his martial-arts coaching led him to affix the mob of pro-Trump rioters that stormed the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, in keeping with court docket filings made public this week.

Jim Robinson, 60, of Schwenksville, informed FBI brokers that as a fourth-degree grasp black belt within the Korean preventing model of Tang Soo Do, he had at all times been taught to assist folks in want of help. He mentioned he’d been drawn contained in the constructing by screams and cries of individuals inside.

However prosecutors say the “support” he rendered that day included shoving his approach via a crowd into the Capitol Rotunda, dismantling a roped safety stanchion, and chanting alongside along with his fellow insurrectionists.

He was charged Friday in Washington with federal misdemeanor counts, together with knowingly getting into a restricted space and illegally demonstrating on Capitol grounds. His arrest makes him the 71st Pennsylvania defendant charged in connection with the Capitol attack — an inventory that features former cops, small-business homeowners, a number of members of the Philadelphia Proud Boys, and not less than one different gymnasium proprietor.

Daybreak Bancroft, the previous proprietor of Bucks County Elite Health in Doylestown, was sentenced to two months’ incarceration last month for taking part within the rebel and filming a video by which she mentioned she’d been on the lookout for Home Speaker Nancy Pelosi to “shoot her in the friggin’ brain.”

Like her, roughly half of the Pennsylvania defendants have pleaded responsible, primarily to misdemeanor crimes, whereas dozens extra await trial on extra critical fees from attacking cops to enjoying a central position within the planning behind the assault.

Robinson declined to remark when reached by telephone Tuesday. In an e-mail, his legal professional, Douglas Dolfman, drew distinctions between his consumer and people who had been charged with extra critical crimes.

“His actions had been definitely extra as a curious observer than an energetic participant or harmful particular person,” Dolfman mentioned. “He regrets deeply for being caught up within the mob mentality that was occurring and didn’t trigger damage to anybody or harm to any property.”

Brokers recognized Robinson — the proprietor of King of Prussia-based Robinson’s Martial Arts & Health, recognized to his college students as “Grasp J” — in surveillance footage after receiving a tip from a “confidential human supply.” In keeping with charging paperwork in his case, Robinson admitted throughout a Could 3 assembly with the FBI that he had illegally entered the Capitol constructing

Wearing all black along with his grey hair pulled again in a ponytail and his face sometimes coated with a black balaclava, Robinson was pictured amongst a crowd that pushed its approach into the Rotunda’s east entrance. Safety stills present him spending a number of minutes inside, pumping his fists within the air, shouting and chanting.

At one level, he was caught on digicam eradicating a velvet rope from a safety submit meant to maintain folks out of unauthorized areas and holding it over his head like a trophy.

However Dolfman took subject with a number of of the main points within the FBI criticism, saying that the safety footage had no sound and it was inconceivable to inform — as brokers had claimed whether or not his consumer was chanting.

“He was merely following individuals who had been chanting and being loud,” the legal professional mentioned.

In his FBI interview, Robinson mentioned he had initially traveled to Washington with three different folks from the Philadelphia space to attend former President Donald Trump’s rally however turned separated from them as they joined the gang marching to the Capitol. He maintained that he had entered the constructing as a result of he had heard screams coming from inside and that he was “sucked into” a mob that pushed its approach into the constructing, the charging paperwork say.

“In keeping with Robinson, his coaching in martial arts had taught him that when folks want help, he ought to do what he may to assist,” the FBI wrote . “Robinson [said he] understood that he was not speculated to be making entry into the Capitol, however he felt he may assist individuals who had been crying out.”

Dolfman added Tuesday that whereas Robinson was contained in the constructing he assisted a girl who had fallen and was being crushed by the crowds.

On his profile web page with the American Tang Soo Do Affiliation, Robinson mentioned he started coaching within the martial artwork in 1990 after two seasons enjoying soccer for a Pottstown workforce.

His social media accounts characteristic images of him in numerous martial arts poses in addition to one by which he’s holding an American flag with the brand of the Three Percenters, an antigovernment militia. Different posts are peppered with right-wing posts railing towards every little thing from inflation and U.S. relations with Russia to COVID-19 precautions and vaccines.

If convicted, Robinson faces as much as a yr incarceration. He stays free pending trial and underneath orders to avoid Washington.

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