Convicted Jan 6. rioter seeks pardon based on Trump’s win

Before he was sentenced to eight years in prison for a riot he was convicted of on January 6, he asked for a pardon, saying Donald Trump’s election day victory vindicated his actions.

Zachary Alam told the judge he wanted a new grade of pardon, which he called a “full pardon of patriotism,” for his actions on January 6, 2021. That would come with monetary compensation, the expungement of charges from his criminal record. and the assurance that he would never again be accused of his crimes.

Alam called anything less a “second-rate pardon” and said he would not accept it.

Although Alam did not deny his actions during the Capitol riots, he justified them by saying, “I will 100% admit that my actions were not legal on January 6th,” saying he was doing the right thing to protect democracy.

“True patriots do the right thing despite everything else,” he proclaimed, and his fellow rioters “fought, cried, bled and died for what is right.”

“Trump wasn’t lying,” Alam said in court, noting that Americans voted “four years later.”

Judge Dabney Friedrich described Alam’s actions as a “vicious” attack on the Constitution, and “not the actions of a patriot.”

Alam called the incident “one of the most violent and aggressive” of the day, noting that the Capitol police described it as the loudest of them all.

At his trial, law enforcement officials recalled him repeatedly telling them, “I’m going to get you high.”

Justice Department lawyers, meanwhile, said on January 6 that Alam had been singled out “for his actions.”

These included knocking on the glass door of the Speaker’s Lobby and pushing against three Capitol police officers who were trying to prevent the mob from entering the floor of the House of Representatives.

He scaled four floors of the Capitol, kicked in doors and threw a velvet rope over a balcony in an attempt to hit officers below.

In court, the Justice Department asserted, “Taking the law into your own hands has consequences.”

After leaving the Capitol Ashley Babbitt was shot, Alam shouted to the rioters “they need weapons”.

Then he ran away and tried to hide his identity.

He was arrested about a month later.

Alam also claimed in court that the Justice Department forced the defendants to take plea deals, an argument the judge rejected Thursday.

He asked if the January 6 rebellion really threatened democracy, and he saw in court that the American people re-elected Trump 48 hours earlier.

“Sometimes you have to break the rules to do it right,” he said.

Alam’s lawyer, Steven Metcalf, argued that his client should serve five years in prison, including the nearly four years he has already served, along with time in a halfway house.

Metcalf stated that his client had no friends and was in and out of solitary confinement, both for his behavior and for his own safety.

The lawyer told the court that some people will not change their beliefs, but admitted that Alam “cannot choose to take matters into his own hands”.

He emphasized the need for rehabilitation to help people like his client.

Alam’s lawyer portrayed him as an accused who had no support system. At the time of the Jan. 6 incidents, he was living inside a storage unit and was not close to his family, according to Metcalf. His parents never appeared in court.

He said Capitol police were not particularly traumatized by Alam, arguing that he or his direct actions had not physically hurt him.

The judge challenged Metcalf’s argument, noting that Capitol Police stationed in the Speaker’s Lobby were the “last stand” between rioters and lawmakers.

He said Alam’s actions caused the trauma those officers suffered on January 6.

Alam said he was willing to undergo rehabilitation, but the judge — citing a lack of remorse — sentenced him to more than eight years in prison and three years of supervised release.

ABC News’ T. Michelle Murphy contributed to this report.