‘I’m more humble now’: Joe Zlab shares his Jan. 6 experience after Trump pardon

During his first day back in office, President Donald Trump issued pardons for 1,500 people convicted or criminally charged in the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol. Among the approximate 1,500 people were 30 Washington residents — Joe Zlab of Lake Forest Park being one of them.

KIRO Newsradio host John Curley, who traveled to Washington, D.C. to witness Trump’s inauguration, bumped into Zlab at the airport and invited him onto “The John Curley Show” to share his side of the story regarding what happened on Jan. 6.

“Why did you go back to D.C. for the inauguration?” Curley asked Zlab.

“Well, I kind of like being a part of history in the making, and this was going to be a momentous event,” Zlab responded.

Zlab was arrested May 13 for his involvement in the Jan. 6 attack, charged with knowingly entering and remaining in a restricted building without lawful authority and for violent entry and disorderly conduct on Capitol grounds.

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“I was there for the infamous day when they had the Jan. 6 Trump event and then the riot that broke out later on,” Zlab confirmed. “I showed up late, but I still walked in the building and got in trouble for it.

“They came after all of us pretty hard,” Zlab said regarding the criminal charges. “It’s good that we’re finally wrapping it up, and hopefully, we can all get some healing and learn some lessons from it.”

Zlab agreed to a plea deal of 200 hours of community service, a $5,000 fine and three additional years of probation. Zlab was already on probation during the legal process, which lasted nearly a year before the plea agreement could be settled and cost Zlab and others approximately $60,000 in legal fees.

“When you went into the building without authority, what was it like in there?” Curley asked.

“I walked in about five minutes before Ashli Babbitt was shot. We didn’t even hear it because it was in a different part of the building,” Zlab said. “When she had been shot, everything changed. The guard said, ‘You guys got to go now.’ (Previously) I walked through a door where three guards were nodding and people were smiling, and all of a sudden, it completely changed. They pulled out guns, and if you didn’t move immediately, they had you down on the floor. So, 99% of us just skedaddled out of there. Took us about five minutes to get out of there because other people were still trying to get in. It was kind of like being in a rock concert where you’re getting crushed, but I finally got out of there.”

In total, Zlab spent 12 minutes inside the Capitol Building.

“I could feel a little bit of pepper spray in the air,” Zlab added. “I kind of knew something had gone down … but I didn’t know that there had been, like, what you saw on TV. I think that was way beyond what 99% of people saw. When I got back to my hotel room, I could not eat my dinner when I saw what they were showing on TV. It was like, ‘Really? What?’ So I think over the next couple years, a lot of this is going to come out that, I think, was a bit sensationalized from what most of us saw.”

As estimated by the architect of the Capitol, the attack caused approximately $1.5 million worth of damage to the U.S. Capitol building, per the U.S. Department of Justice.

Zlab’s involvement and participation in the events that transpired at the Capitol on Jan. 6 taught him many lessons — none more important than figuring out and learning who his real friends are.

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“When stuff goes down, you find out who your real friends are,” Zlab said. “We got outed in a very, very liberal community, so we felt kind of naked and exposed, and it was a little bit scary to
tell you the truth. Seattle is a very polite place. If they don’t agree with you, they’re not going to get in your face like, say, New York. But, you know, you get that freeze.”

Other friends and people close to Zlab stepped up and supported him during the ensuing legal battles, including some who were willing to write a letter to the judge claiming they knew Zlab personally and that he wasn’t trying to stop the vote.

“You know, I joined the Navy after 9/11,” Zlab told Curley. “I love my country, so it was kind of insulting and hurtful that I was being accused of these things.”

“Did you lose more faith in your government and your country after what you had gone through and how you were treated?” Curley asked.

“I mean, for a while I did, for sure,” Zlab said. “I was like, this is not the country I grew up in. It’s not what I know. But I’ve come around.”

He called his trip back to the Capitol grounds for Trump’s inauguration a “healing experience.”

“People were there. They were positive,” Zlab continued. “The whole time I was there, people were like, ‘Hey, let’s make this country a good place.’ I took the whole journey of thinking, ‘Man, this place is not what I think it should be to like,’ to ‘Hey, let’s stop the food fight and let’s all pull together.’ I learned a lot. Let’s just say, I’m a lot more humble than I was. I’ve learned some lessons.”

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Zlab completed his 200 hours of community service cleaning up trash and homeless encampments in public areas in Everett, an experience he’s extremely grateful for.

“There’s a homeless shelter across the street, and I always hated it,” Zlab said. “And then, after 200 hours going there and picking up trash and cleaning around that place, I ended up getting some humility and just learning, ‘Hey, these are God’s children.’ Stop looking down your nose at them. Stop being angry at them. Stop being pissed off about it. They’re no better or worse than I am.”

Frank Sumrall is a content editor at MyNorthwest and producer of the Seattle Seahawks podcast, The Reset with Gee Scott. You can read his stories here and you can email him here.

Listen to John Curley on “The John Curley Show” weekday afternoons from 3-7 p.m. on KIRO Newsradio, 97.3 FM. Subscribe to the podcast here.