A Texas man was sentenced last week after pleading guilty to a felony charge stemming from his conduct during the events at the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021.
Adam Lejay Jackson, 43, pled guilty in September 2023 to one count of assaulting, resisting, or impeding certain officers using a dangerous weapon.
On March 21, he was sentenced to 36 months probation. As a condition of his probation, he will have to serve 52 consecutive weekends in jail. Jackson was also ordered to pay $2,000 in restitution and a fine of $4,392, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia.
Court documents found that Jackson traveled by plane from Texas to Washington, D.C. on January 5, 2021, with his co-defendant and brother Brian Jackson and an unnamed friend to protest the certification of the presidential election results.
Jackson, his brother, and the friend attended the “Stop the Steal” rally that morning at the Ellipse. Following the rally, the three went back to their hotel before going to the Capitol, arriving at Peace Circle at about 3:38 p.m.
At 4:15 p.m., Jackson and his friend climbed to the top of a ladder on the Lower West Terrace, where Jackson was able to see the Lower West Terrace tunnel, where some protesters were purportedly engaging physically with police officers in an attempt to breach the Capitol building.
Jackson video recorded what occurred on his cell phone, often zooming in to focus on the allegedly “aggressive conduct” of the protesters and cheering on their efforts, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office.
At 4:57 p.m., Jackson gathered with other protesters on the Lower West Terrace near the tunnel and obtained possession of a stolen police shield. During this time, Jackson physically engaged the officers in the tunnel, first by throwing a large cone-like object at the police line, then by charging at it and ramming the line with the police shield. According to court documents, Jackson took a running start from the top portion of the stairs and slammed into the frontline officers. Two frontline officers who took the brunt of the collision lost their balance and fell down
Jackson was arrested by the FBI on June 7, 2022, in Katy.
As previously reported by The Dallas Express, the federal government has been subject to accusations of overreach and an invasion of U.S. citizens’ privacy. For instance, while investigating the events at the U.S. Capitol, the FBI cast a broad dragnet to target people whose phones’ location data put them near the building on the day in question, whether or not their behavior was peaceful.
The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia and the Department of Justice National Security Division’s Counterterrorism Section prosecuted the case. The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Texas provided assistance.
The FBI’s Houston and Washington Field Offices investigated the case. The U.S. Capitol Police and the Metropolitan Police Department provided assistance.
So far, over 700 people have pled guilty to federal charges related to the protests on January 6, 2021.
