Moments before a convicted Jan. 6 rioter was sentenced to eight years in prison on Thursday, he sought a full pardon by claiming that Donald Trump’s victory on Election Day vindicated his actions.
Zachary Alam told the court that he wanted a new classification of pardon, which he called a “full pardon of patriotism,” for his actions on Jan. 6, 2021. That would come with monetary compensation, expungement of the charges from his criminal record and the assurance that he would never again be charged for his crimes.
Alam seemed to characterize anything less as a “second-class pardon” and implied that he would not accept it.
Although Alam did not deny his actions during the riot on the Capitol, stating, “I will 100% admit my actions were not lawful on January 6,” he also justified them by saying he was doing the right thing to protect democracy.
“True patriots do the right thing in spite of everything else,“ he claimed, adding that his fellow rioters had “fought, cried, bled and died for what is right.”
“Trump wasn’t lying,” Alam said in court, emphasizing that the American people voted for him “four years later.”
