Zachary Alam walked free from federal prison in January after Donald Trump pardoned him for his role in the January 6 Capitol attack. By May, he was arrested for burglary in Virginia. On Thursday, a judge sentenced him to seven years in prison for the crime.
Alam, 34, had served nearly four years of an eight-year sentence for his conduct during the Capitol riot before Trump's clemency wiped his slate clean on the first day of his second presidency. The federal judge who originally sentenced him had described Alam as "by far the loudest, the most combative and the most violent of the rioters" present that day.
The Virginia conviction reveals an uncomfortable reality for the Trump administration: the pardon power does not extend to state crimes. Alam's return to prison demonstrates that federal clemency, however expansive, cannot shield an individual from local law enforcement and state courts.
On May 8, Alam allegedly broke into a home outside Richmond, claiming to residents that he was there to fix their internet connection. He fled with electronics and jewelry. Police located him in an adjacent neighborhood the following day and arrested him.
A Henrico County jury found Alam guilty in October of breaking and entering an occupied dwelling and grand larceny. Judge Randall G Johnson sentenced him to 20 years on each count, but suspended the entire grand larceny sentence and 13 years of the burglary conviction, leaving Alam with a seven-year active term. He will also serve 20 years of probation on each conviction after his release.
Prosecutors presented a recorded phone call at sentencing in which Alam expressed conviction that he had done "the right thing" on January 6. That mirrors his federal trial testimony, when he told the court: "I believed in my heart I was doing the right thing. Sometimes you have to break the rules to do what's right."
Alam had been among the first rioters to enter the Capitol from its west lawn during the attack. Federal prosecutors showed he broke glass panes in a door through which Ashli Babbitt, the Trump supporter shot dead by a Capitol Police officer, had climbed. He hurled objects at police from a balcony and urged others to return with weapons.
Shannon Taylor, the Henrico County prosecutor and Democratic congressional candidate, told local television station WRIC that Trump's pardon "emboldened him to believe the law does not apply to him." But she noted the pardon held no sway over state charges.
This arrest marks the first known case of a Trump-pardoned Capitol participant facing new criminal charges after the clemency was granted.
Author James Rodriguez: "The pardon solved one legal problem and created a different kind of liability. Alam got a second chance and threw it away in four months."
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