Zachary Alam (U.S. Attorney’s Office).
A Virginia man who smashed windows in the Speaker’s Lobby moments before Ashli Babbitt was shot and killed by a U.S. Capitol officer during the Jan. 6 riots was sentenced to eight years in prison.
Zachary Jordan Alam, 32, learned his fate this week. In addition to the prison time, he was also given 36 months of supervised release and ordered to pay $4,484 in restitution by U.S. District Judge Dabney L. Friedrich, a Donald Trump appointee, the U.S. Attorney’s Office announced in a press release.
Alam told the court he wanted a full pardon after Donald Trump takes office in January and defended his actions, even though he said he knew they were illegal, reported NBC News’ Ryan Reilly, who has covered these cases extensively and written a book about them: “Sedition Hunters: How January 6th Broke the Justice System.”
“Trump just won the presidential election less than 48 hours ago,” Alam said. “Was the 2021 transfer of presidential power warranted? I don’t think so.”
Alam was convicted in September of assaulting officers, civil disorder, destruction of government property, trespassing, disorderly conduct and picketing in a Capitol building.
He helped other rioters scale barriers propped as make-shift ladders outside the Capitol. He entered the building at 2:17 p.m. through a broken window adjacent to the Senate Wing emergency exit doors, according to the statement of facts filed in his criminal caase.
Alam spent 30 minutes inside roaming around. On one floor, he tried to kick in a door. On another floor, he threw a red velvet rope from a balcony at police officers below, court documents said.
At 2:33 p.m., he was corralled in the Will Rogers corridor, where he yelled at officers, laughed, argued with other rioters, and joined the mob that pushed through the police line.
Later, he went to the Speaker’s Lobby, where he looked through the glass door inside as members of Congress and staff were evacuating the chamber.
“I’m going to f— you up,” he shouted at the front of the mob multiple times in the faces of officers standing guard.
Alam moved to the doors, punched the glass repeatedly with his fist, and shattered three glass door panes as members.
As he punched the door, Alam pushed up against three officers standing guard. Alam rallied the crowd, announcing that “the problem” was with the House members. Alam then used a black helmet to smash out three glass panes.
As he was leaving the area, Alam called out to fellow rioters, “we need guns, bro … we need guns.”
In the government’s sentencing memo, seeking 136 months of incarceration – or more than 11 years – prosecutors said the defendant was one of the most violent and aggressive rioters that day.
“As established at trial, he spent the day antagonizing officers and inciting other rioters, culminating in his repeated violent and forceful attempts to reach congressional members and staffers as they frantically evacuated the House floor,” prosecutors said.
Prosecutors said that after he was arrested on Jan. 30, 2021, at a motel in Denver, Pennsylvania, agents found evidence of his flight and his plans to dispose of evidence connecting him to Jan. 6. They found Alam’s journal, recording his reflections of that day and his plans to flee and conceal his identity, including setting up new bank accounts and using a “burner” phone to conceal his identity and location from law enforcement.
In his sentencing memo asking for 57 months – or nearly five years incarceration – Alam’s attorney, Steven Metcalf, said he traveled alone, did not physically injure anyone, and left the building after Babbitt was shot by an officer in front of Alam. His client has acknowledged the seriousness of his charges, Metcalf wrote. He also said Alam has become a public figure of scrutiny on both the left and the right of the political mayhem ensuing following Jan. 6 and has been villainized as an “Antifa activist, anarchist, and even a federal agent, banned from so-called patriot groups,” Metcalf wrote.
“Here, Mr. Alam is lost in this world. He is a loner, one who went to the Capitol on his own, and acted at times in a manner he may have believed others wanted him to act,” Metcalf wrote. “Alam wanted to fit in, it did not matter with whom, Alam just wanted to fit in somewhere because he has been rejected by everyone else in his life.”
Alam is a medical school dropout whose father is of Palestinian descent, and his mother is of Pennsylvania Dutch descent, the document said. Dropping out of medical school strained his relationship with his father. After his Jan. 6 arrest, the relationship took another wrong turn. His struggles include living for a time in a storage unit, where he would sneak in and out so others would not see him.
He showered at a local gym to get ready for the day with proper hygiene. Then COVID hit, and all the gyms closed.
“Something then changed in Alam,” the memo said. “This is how Alam ended up in his position on January 6, 2021.”
Have a tip we should know? [email protected]
