Man seen wearing 'Camp Auschwitz' sweatshirt on Jan. 6 pleads guilty to trespassing

This photo provided by Western Tidewater Regional Jail shows Robert Keith Packer of Newport News, Va.
This photo provided by Western Tidewater Regional Jail shows Robert Keith Packer of Newport News, Va.


The man seen wearing a "Camp Auschwitz" sweatshirt in the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, has pleaded guilty to trespassing.

Robert Packer, 57, was arrested days after the attack on the Capitol and charged with entering and remaining in a restricted building as well as violent entry and disorderly conduct and parading, demonstrating or picketing in a Capitol building.

He pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor charge of trespassing on Wednesday and could now face up to six months in prison, according to CNN. His sentencing is set for April.

A number of other defendants who have confessed to the same charge and have not been accused of violence, however, have been sentenced to less or no time in jail, the network noted.

While inside the Capitol building on Jan. 6, Packer was photographed wearing a sweatshirt that read "Camp Auschwitz," referring to the concentration camp where more than 1.1 million people, including nearly a million Jews, were killed during the Holocaust.

The bottom of his sweatshirt read "Work brings freedom," a translation of "Arbeit macht frei," the German words that appear on an arch over the concentration camp.

Prosecutors alleged that Packer traveled to Washington, D.C., on or around Jan. 6, 2021, and "knowingly and willfully joined and encouraged a crowd of individuals who forcibly entered the U.S. Capitol and impeded, disrupted, and disturbed the orderly conduct of business" by the House and Senate.

During his plea agreement hearing, prosecutors said Packer was located close by when rioters broke the sign on House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's (D-Calif.) office and when rioter Ashli Babbitt was fatally shot, according to CNN. He then reportedly departed the building after roughly 20 minutes.

More than 725 people have been arrested in connection with the attack on the Capitol, according to the Department of Justice. Roughly 165 individuals had pleaded guilty one year after the riot.