SC family from Fort Mill area charged in Jan. 6 Capitol storming

Four members of the same South Carolina family face charges in the storming of the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.

Linwood Alan Robinson Sr., 59, Linwood Alan Robinson Jr. and Brittany Nicole Robinson were arraigned Thursday morning in federal court in Columbia before Magistrate Judge Shiva Hodges.

Linwood Alan Robinson Jr., 39, and Brittany Nicole Robinson, 29, are married.

A fourth family member, Benjamin Scott Robinson, a son who lives in North Carolina, accompanied the three South Carolina residents in the Capitol. He was arrested Thursday and arraigned in federal court in Charlotte, according to federal records.

A fifth Robinson, a teenage grandson, accompanied the other four into the Capitol but was not identified or charged because he was a minor at the time.

All five were at the forefront of a mob that tried to storm the U.S. House chambers and had waved the mob on, according to a criminal complaint.

“The Robinsons were among the people closest to the internal doorway to the House. Officers attempting to protect the Speaker’s Lobby Door were forced to retreat by the escalating violence from the crowd. Rioters in the front of the crowd broke the glass windows leading to the House,” the complaint said.

“Multiple people warned the group, ‘He’s got a gun,” or simply, “Gun,” referring to the officers on the other side of the glass-paned door. Just after that warning, Benjamin Scott Robinson used his body and foot to pound the door. At the same time, a rioter, later identified in news reports as Ashli Babbitt, was climbing up and through the broken window, and a shot was fired moments later.“

The Robinsons then left the building in a group.

The complaint charged that the Robinsons were among the first rioters into the Capitol and, once on the Senate side of the building, “breached the police line to gain access to the rest of the building.”

The three South Carolinians are believed to be residents of the Indian Land area near Fort Mill, just south of Charlotte.

All three were brought into the courtroom Thursday in handcuffs and ankle chains. They werewoken by FBI SWAT teams at their homes at dawn and arrested.

In court Thursday, Linwood Alan Robinson Sr. was wearing a navy T-shirt with an American flag and the words, “We are not descended from fearful men,” on the back. The stripes on the American flag were red and white alternating rifles. He operates a towing and automotive garage in the Fort Mill area, according to the Better Business Bureau and the U.S. Department of Transportation.

Hodges told all three that further court proceedings after Thursday will take place in District of Columbia. All three told the judge they wanted to hire their own private attorneys.

Their next court appearance, held remotely,is scheduled for May 31.

Charges against them are entering and remaining in a restricted building, disorderly and disruptive conduct in a restricted building, disorderly conduct in a Capitol building and parading, demonstrating or picketing in a restricted building.

Hodges indicated Thursday that she would be releasing them each on a $25,000 unsecured bond.

The new charges against the three makes 14 South Carolinians so far arrested in connection with charges related to the Capitol breach.

Seven of the 11 people from South Carolina have pleaded guilty to charges related to the Capitol breach.

Sentences pronounced in four cases so far range from probation for non-violent offenders who only stayed a brief time in the Capitol, to 44 months in prison for one defendant who fought with Capitol police.

Four of the remaining 11 defendants have yet to decide whether to plead guilty or seek a trial. All four of the undecideds, including a Citadel cadet, are scheduled to choose whether they plan to plead by the end of June.

Complaint lays out details

The affidavit against all four Robinsons, submitted by FBI agent Robert Hamilton, said closed caption video footage and videos taken by other rioters and members of the media show all five Robinson family members.

The family entered the Capitol through the Senate wing door at approximately 2:17 p.m., around five minutes after the first rioters breached the building by breaking windows and forcing open the doors.

The affidavit said the family first walked down a hall to the Capitol Crypt, breaching a police line and then walked down a long hallway toward the House wing door. They then walked up small spiral stairs to a corridor west of the Rotunda and Statuary Hall, where the House Speaker’s is located, according to the affidavit.

“They walked into the Speaker’s office suite for a few moments, and exited from across the suite through a different door,” the affidavit states. “Then they walked through Statuary Hall to join a growing crowd amassing outside of the House chamber. From there, they moved to an opening to the east and walked down the House corridors toward the southeast doors.”

The affidavit states that, according to videos from the riot, the Robinsons were among people closest to the internal doorway to the House and were close to where Babbitt was shot.

The Robinsons’ arrests are part of a still-unfolding massive investigation by the U.S. Department of Justice.

More than 800 defendants have charged with storming the Capitol, and approximately 280 of those have pleaded guilty.

For weeks before the riot, then-President Donald Trump and others had promoted false charges that the November 2020 election had been stolen. Trump and associates urged his followers to march on the Capitol on Jan. 6 and stop Congress from certifying President Joe Biden’s victory by conducting a formal electoral vote count.

The charges have been shown to be false in numerous courts and ballot recounts.

When the rioters stormed the Capitol, members of Congress fled the chambers and did not reconvene until five hours later once police had cleared the Capitol building area.