Feds want jail for rioter who expected 'slap on the wrist'

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Background: FILE — Violent rioters loyal to President Donald Trump storm the Capitol in Washington on Jan. 6, 2021. (AP Photo/John Minchillo, File). Insets: Zachariah Boulton (via FBI court filings).

Federal prosecutors want the Georgia man who crossed state lines and broke into the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6 — and later told a reporter he expected nothing more than “a slap on the wrist” — to go to jail.

Zachariah Boulton, 38, drove alone for 12 hours from Villa Rica, a city around 30 miles west of Atlanta, to Washington, D.C., to join the planned protest of Congress’ certification of President Joe Biden’s 2020 electoral win. In the days before Jan. 6, prosecutors say in a sentencing memo filed Monday, he cast a wide net, asking people to join him, posting requests on TikTok such as, “Anyone want to roll me to Washington DC jan 5th to the 6th?”

Boulton, an Army veteran and truck driver, also said that he is “always armed and ready.”

After attending President Donald Trump’s speech at the Ellipse, during which the former president urged his supporters to “fight like hell” against Biden’s certification, he joined the crowd at the Capitol building moving past police barriers. He entered the Capitol at 2:31 p.m., prosecutors say, around 15 minutes after the initial violent breach of the building.

He entered the Rotunda and stood toward the back of the crowd, according to the memo.

“During a prolonged standoff, rioters surrounding Boulton chanted repeatedly ‘F— McConnell,”” the memo says, referring to Republican Sen. Mitch McConnell of Kentucky. “Boulton filmed the rioters with his cellphone, tacitly approving their actions. When a physical altercation ensued between rioters at the front of the crowd and the police, Boulton could be seen on open-source videos pushing and being pushed from behind.”

Boulton left after appearing to have been hit with mace sprayed by police trying to disperse the crowd.

He pleaded guilty in November to one count of entering and remaining in a restricted building or grounds, a federal misdemeanor that carries a potential one-year maximum jail sentence.

Prosecutors now say he should spend three months behind bars.

After participating in the violence, prosecutors say, Boulton repeatedly defended his actions on social media.

“The tree of liberty from time to time needs to be watered with the blood of patriots and tyrants,” he said in a video he made while driving home after the Capitol attack. “Don’t come at me, oh, you lowered yourself by going into that Capitol building. F— that. We need to send them a message now that they will understand and that’s it. No property was really destroyed other than a window. But we made ourselves clear that we will not stand by and s—‘s gonna get real. If you’re not ready for that, go hide.”

Prosecutors say Boulton deleted many of the videos and comments he had posted on TikTok in the days after Jan. 6.

One thing that remained, however, was a newspaper article — more than two years after the riot — about Boulton in which he appeared to not be taking his case very seriously.

“In an interview with a reporter for The Atlanta Journal-Constitution newspaper on August 1, 2023, Boulton told the reporter that he was not concerned about criminal charges in this case, stating ‘It’s just going to be a slap on the wrist. I’m not too concerned about a misdemeanor. If it was a felony, I’d fight it to the hilt,’” prosecutors note in the memo. “Boulton told that same reporter that January 6 was caused by the federal government, who entrapped rioters by welcoming them into the U.S. Capitol building.”