A Virginia man who was pardoned by Donald Trump for his role in the Jan. 6 2021 attack at the United States Capitol was arrested and charged with burglary earlier this month.
On May 9, Henrico County police responded to a call for breaking and entering after residents reported that an unknown man had entered their house through the backdoor and took several items, according to the Washington Post.
The suspect was arrested the same day in a neighborhood outside of Richmond.
On Tuesday, police identified him as Zachary Jordan Alam, 33, of Centreville, Virginia. Alam, who already has previous convictions including car theft and DUI, was charged with felony residential burglary and misdemeanor vandalism.
Alam was one of the over 1,500 Capitol riot defendants who were pardoned by Trump shortly after he returned to office in January.
Prosecutors say Alam was among the first rioters to enter the Capitol building on Jan. 6. Once inside, he threw items at police and used a helmet to break the glass of a door in the speaker’s lobby through which fellow rioter Ashli Babbitt climbed before she was fatally shot by an officer defending the building.
Alam was convicted on several charges related to the riot, including assaulting law enforcement, and was sentenced to eight years in prison last November.
Alam isn’t the first Capitol rioter to be accused of breaking the law after receiving a pardon from Trump.
An Indiana man, Matthew Huttle, was fatally shot by a sheriff’s deputy during a traffic less than a week after receiving his pardon. Huttle had a firearm and was not allowed to own one due to previous felony convictions.
Another pardoned rioter, Emily Hernandez was sentenced to 10 years in prison in Missouri for a 2022 drunk driving crash that killed a woman in another car and seriously injured the woman’s husband.
In Houston, Andrew Taake was arrested on an outstanding sex crime charge.
