One of the most active and visible rioters at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, who smashed windows and taunted police in the lobby where Ashli Babbitt was fatally shot, is asking a federal judge to sentence him to time served so he can get mental health treatment and not risk “further radicalization” in the federal prison system.
Zachary Jordan Alam asked U.S. District Judge Dabney L. Friedrich to depart downward from federal sentencing guidelines and order him to serve no more than 40 months in prison for his conviction on six felony and three misdemeanor charges. Alam has been in custody for 45 months.
Prosecutors recommend Judge Friedrich depart upward from guidelines and sentence Alam, 33, of Centreville, Virginia, to more than 11 years in prison at his sentencing hearing in Washington, D.C. At the last minute, the sentencing was bumped from Oct. 16 to Oct. 30, with Nov. 7 set as a backup date. No explanation was provided on the court docket.
Alam’s sentencing has been repeatedly delayed since a jury found him guilty of 10 charges on Sept. 12, 2023. The most recent delays were caused by new information from Alam’s mother on his history of family trouble and mental instability — including a suicide attempt while he was in medical school in 2015.
Alam’s Aug. 14 supplemental sentencing memo was heavily redacted and filed partly under court seal. Defense attorney Steven Metcalf II attributed his client’s criminal behavior on Jan. 6 to emotional instability rather than a “specific criminal intent.”
“A ‘time-served’ or 40-month-range sentence will allow Mr. Alam to rehabilitate himself after serving more than three and a half years in the federal prison system,” Metcalf wrote.
The “environment of incarceration poses a significant risk of further radicalization,” Metcalf wrote, “a risk that can be mitigated through appropriate [redacted].”
Alam caused trouble all over the Capitol grounds on Jan. 6, nowhere more so than the entrance to the Speaker’s Lobby.
He used his right fist to punch at the doorway, mere inches from the left side of Capitol Police Officer Christopher Lanciano’s face. He also punched at the glass panel behind Officer Kyle Yetter and Sgt. Timothy Lively, video showed.
Using a helmet handed to him by rioter Christopher Grider, Alam smashed several glass panes in the doorway. After the final glass pane fell into the Speaker’s Lobby, former military policewoman Babbitt punched him in the nose with a left hook, knocking off his glasses. Babbitt then climbed into the broken-out right window and was shot at 2:44 p.m. by Capitol Police Lt. Michael Byrd. She died 31 minutes later at a Washington hospital.
“Mr. Alam’s behavior during the events of January 6th was marked by a loss of temper, but also contained by a degree of self-control that suggests he is not beyond redemption,” Metcalf wrote.
“His actions were not those of a hardened criminal, but rather of an individual struggling with emotional instability,” Metcalf said. “This instability has roots in his troubled upbringing, as previously detailed, and has manifested in ways that suggest a strong potential for rehabilitation.”
Prosecutors strongly disagreed, asking for 136 months in prison, even after the recent dismissal of the felony charge of obstruction of Congress that was spurred by the June 28 U.S. Supreme Court decision in Fischer v. United States.
“A 136-month sentence reflects the gravity of Alam’s conduct in assaulting officers and destroying government property during the riot, as well as his extensive planning and attempted flight from prosecution for his conduct on January 6,” wrote Assistant U.S. Attorneys Joseph Smith Jr. and Rebekah Lederer in a 54-page sentencing memo.
“Alam intentionally put himself at the front of the mob, where he threatened the USCP officers, yelling, ‘I’m going to f**k you up!’ in their faces,” prosecutors wrote.
“All said, in the course of just 25 seconds Alam violently kicked the doors three times then smashed the doors and glass panes with the helmet an additional nine times, breaking two glass panes completely out,” the DOJ memo said. “All the while, Alam’s actions exacerbated the chaos, inflaming the mob overall.”
Alam was seen on video helping protesters climb onto the balustrade of the northwest steps leading to the Capitol from the West Plaza. Earlier video showed him holding what appeared to be the weighted base of a flagpole and bashing it against the stone side of the northwest steps.
Alam entered the Capitol at 2:17 p.m. through the Senate wing door and proceeded to the Crypt, security video showed.
Unlike most of the protesters who jammed the Crypt in the minutes after the Capitol was breached, Alam ducked into a small side hallway with Jan. 6 defendant Paul Kovacik and took the elevator to the fourth floor just before 2:30 p.m.
“Start knocking on doors,” Kovacik said, according to video he shot with his phone. Alam then turned to his left and attempted without success to kick in an office door. “Don't kick it,” Kovacik chided.
The men walked through the lobby near Room H405 and entered the stairwell. By this time, Alam had placed a black leather floppy-ear Canada Goose hat over his red MAGA cap.
Alam and Kovacik walked down to the third floor. Capitol CCTV footage showed that shortly after entering the hallway and turning a corner near room H306, Alam came sprinting back and disappeared off camera.
Video showed Alam taking velvet ropes from a crowd-control stanchion and throwing them from a third-floor balcony at police below. The ropes have metal ends with clips designed to attach to stanchions to control crowd flow at events.
Alam then took the stairs down another floor and exited near Room H208, where he encountered Jason Gandolph, a plainclothes officer from the House Sergeant at Arms office. Instead of directing Alam out of the building or detaining him, Gandolph walked with him to the Will Rogers corridor near the main House entrance.
Alam turned the corner and walked through the police line into a huge crowd that had flowed in from Statuary Hall. His caterwauling so annoyed an older protester that the man stepped forward, slapped Alam on the side of the head and shouted, “Shut up!”
Alam photobombed journalist Tayler Hansen’s livestream, put his arm around him, and said, “It’s insane, bro. We’ve got to f***ing revolutionize the entire world right now,” according to Hansen’s video.
After Babbitt was shot and fell back to the floor, Alam looked at her and jumped back with a look of horror, then ran down nearby stairs to a landing.
On his way out of the building through the Upper House Door at 2:50 p.m., Alam was recorded calling out to fellow rioters, “We need guns, bro. We need guns,” prosecutors said.
Alam was arrested more than 20 times before Jan. 6, prosecutors wrote in a court filing. He was arrested in Denver, Pennsylvania, by the FBI on Jan. 30, 2021, after he went on the run. His mother, Karyn Alam, identified him to the FBI based on photos from the U.S. Capitol.
Alam's sentencing — most recently scheduled for Oct. 16 — was delayed again at the last minute. No explanation was provided on the case docket, and a new date hasn't been set.
Editor's note: This article has been updated to note that Alam's sentencing hearing, scheduled for Oct. 16, has been delayed.
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