The Department of Justice is seeking more than 11 years in prison for Zachary Jordan Alam, the rioter who created “one of the most fraught and dangerous moments” of Jan. 6 just before Ashli Babbitt was fatally shot by Capitol Police.
Mr. Alam, 32, of Centreville, Virginia, faces a May 6 sentencing hearing before U.S. District Court Judge Dabney Friedrich for seven felony and three misdemeanor charges stemming from his time at the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.
Prosecutors asked for a 136-month prison term, a six-level upward departure from federal sentencing guidelines.
Defense attorney Steven Metcalf II called the DOJ’s recommended 11.33-year prison term “extremely excessive,” arguing instead for no more than 4.75 years behind bars.
The sentencing document focuses primarily on Mr. Alam’s behavior in a raucous crowd just outside the Speaker’s Lobby near the House Chamber.
“Alam intentionally put himself at the front of the mob, where he threatened the USCP officers, yelling, ‘I’m going to [expletive] you up!’ in their faces,” the document read.
“Alam pushed against the officers, creating an opening so he could punch the glass panes of the doors. Alam’s punches landed near the heads and faces of the officers, shattering three door window panes.”
Guilty Verdicts
Mr. Alam was found guilty in a jury trial on Sept. 12, 2023, of 10 charges: assaulting, resisting or impeding certain officers, obstructing officers during a civil disorder, destruction of government property, obstruction of an official proceeding, entering and remaining in a restricted building or grounds with a deadly or dangerous weapon, disorderly or disruptive conduct in a restricted building or grounds with a deadly or dangerous weapon, engaging in physical violence in a restricted building or grounds with a deadly or dangerous weapon, disorderly conduct in a Capitol building, act of physical violence in a Capitol building, and parading, demonstrating or picketing in a Capitol building.Mr. Alam was arrested by the FBI on Jan. 30, 2021, in Denver, Pennsylvania, after weeks on the run. His mother, Karyn Alam, identified him to the FBI based on photos from the U.S. Capitol.
According to court records, Mr. Alam entered the U.S. Capitol at 2:17 p.m. through a broken window near the Senate Wing Door. Security video showed him changing his shirt in the Crypt. He wore a floppy-ear Canada Goose cap that helped make him one of the most recognized figures of Jan. 6.
After the crowd advanced to the main House door, Mr. Alam approached journalist Tayler Hansen, put his arm around him, and said, “It’s insane, bro. We’ve got to [expletive] revolutionize the entire world right now,” according to Mr. Hansen’s video obtained by The Epoch Times.
In the hallway outside the entrance to the Speaker’s Lobby, Mr. Alam shouted at police and became violent, video evidence showed. He used his right fist to punch at the doorway, inches from the left side of Capitol Police Officer Christopher Lanciano’s face, the video showed. He also punched at the glass between Officer Kyle Yetter and Sgt. Timothy Lively.
Violence Erupts
After Mr. Yetter, Mr. Lively, and Mr. Lanciano abandoned their post at the Speaker’s Lobby doors, Mr. Alam kicked the double doors several times and was joined in the attack by several others. He was handed a black helmet by rioter Christopher Grider that he used to smash several of the windows, video showed.Video shows Mr. Alam jumping back in shock when he saw Ms. Babbitt fall to the floor after she was shot by Mr. Byrd. He then raced down the nearby set of stairs and was seen on video with his head in his hands.
“As he left the Capitol building, another rioter recorded him stating, ‘We need guns, bro… we need guns,’” the DOJ said in its sentencing memo. It’s not clear if Mr. Alam spoke the words to the man shown confronting him on the security video.
When he was arrested on Jan. 30, 2021, police seized Mr. Alam’s journals, “which not only recorded his reflections of January 6 but also memorialized his plans to flee and conceal his identity, including journal entries about his plans to set up new bank accounts and use a ‘burner’ phone to conceal his identity and location from law enforcement,” prosecutors wrote.
Mr. Alam “wrote of his actions as ‘patriotic’ and alluded to plans to make a video in which he would ‘certify [his] American-ness,’ [and] explain ‘why I did what I did.’”
“His father could not accept that Zachary would not become a doctor and stated that he ‘disowned’ Zachary,” Mr. Alam’s mother, Karyn Alam, wrote in a letter to Judge Friedrich.
“He attempted numerous jobs, such as selling health products, unloading trucks, working at a vitamin store, being a personal trainer, driving a bike taxi, and bussing tables,” Mrs. Alam wrote. “I gave Zachary emotional and moral support to the best of my ability, but his father’s rejection continued.
“Zachary had turned to alcohol and drug use and associated with people who were negative influences; he began committing misdemeanor crimes to survive,” she said.
Mother Calls FBI
“After numerous family discussions and painful, emotional anguish, I made the decision to identify Zachary to the FBI,” his mother wrote. “I feared for Zachary’s well-being; family members feared for their own welfare since we could all identify him.“Identifying my son to the FBI was the most difficult, heart-breaking decision I have ever made,” she wrote, “but I felt it was the right thing to do.”
Mr. Metcalf asked the judge to consider Mr. Alam’s pre-Jan. 6 difficulties, stating that his client for a time was homeless, living out of a Virginia storage unit, and visiting a local gym to shower.
“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,” Mr. Metcalf wrote. “Alam wanted to fit in, it did not matter with whom, Alam just wanted to fit somewhere because he has been rejected by everyone else in his life.”
