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Left: Alexander Fan, circled in yellow, being confronted by police inside a staff office for Sen. Chuck Schumer on Jan. 6, 2021. Right: Alexander Fan selfie taken on Jan. 6, 2021 inside the U.S. Capitol. Courtesy of Justice Department court records.
A college student who pleaded guilty to trespassing at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6 and received a sentence of just one year of probation has accused a newly-indicted FBI agent of stealing $2,500 cash as well as silver bars from his home after he was arrested in Texas last June.
Alexander Fan, 27, was sentenced on Feb. 16 and according to court records, the former Asians for Trump adherent made the allegations against former FBI agent Nicholas Anthony Williams in a sentencing memorandum filed by his attorney Mark Thering in federal court in Washington, D.C.
Williams was arrested and indicted on four charges on Jan. 31 and subsequently arraigned on Feb. 2 before U.S. Magistrate Judge Christina Bryan. Williams has pleaded not guilty to all charges. He appears in court next for a motion hearing on Feb. 26. His attorney did not immediately return a request for comment.
That indictment was the direct result of Williams allegedly lifting the cash and silver bars valued at roughly $3,000 from Fan’s family residence on July 13 while conducting a search with other agents, Fan’s attorney Mark Thering told Law&Crime in an email Tuesday.
In his statement of offense, prosecutors say Fan’s foray into the Capitol on Jan. 6 began when he left Houston a day earlier intent on attending former President Donald Trump’s “Stop the Steal” rally at the Ellipse. After the speech was over, Fan walked toward the Capitol where he was soon met with fencing and barricades.
Joined by others, he walked toward the Capitol’s west lawn and then, looking up at “torn scaffolding” according to prosecutors, he ascended the stairs before he climbed atop a riser “where he had a bird’s eye view of the chaos unfolding below as law enforcement officers attempted to stem the tide of protesters coming onto the grounds and into the U.S. Capitol building.”
Fan would eventually make it to an area near the Capitol’s main entrance before he climbed through a window that led into a staff room for Sen. Chuck Schumer of New York.
A photo from Jan. 6, 2021 outside of the U.S. Capitol shows defendant Alexander Fan, circled in yellow, looking at the camera as rioters swarm to enter. Notably in front of fan is Jan. 6 rioter and “QAnon shaman” Jacob Chansley. (Images via FBI court filings.)
Voices coming from the office gave them away. The men were inside for roughly 20 to 30 minutes before opening the door to police who were knocking, court records show.
Prosecutors say the police found Fan inside sporting a “Make America Great Again” hat. He was with another man wearing a ski cap, identified as Juan Rodriguez, and a third man wearing a helmet. The third person was not identified in court records.
“Glass from the shattered window panes littered the floor of the office,” court records state.
Police escorted the men out of Schumer’s staff office, took them through the Rotunda and then out the front door.
U.S. District Judge Amit Mehta, a Barack Obama appointee, sentenced Fan to 12 months probation after convicting him of a single count of willfully and knowingly entering and remaining in a room in a U.S. building set aside for the designated use of a member of Congress with intent to disrupt official business, pursuant to his plea. Fan must also pay $500 in restitution.
Court records show prosecutors offered to dismiss all of Fan’s remaining counts in an oral motion before the court on Feb. 16 and Mehta accepted.
A former part-time student at the University of Houston on track to earn his business degree, Fan said in court records that he was the child of Chinese immigrants who had “escaped communist China in 1973 to make a better life in Hong Kong.”
After his parents obtained visas and moved to the U.S. legally, they became naturalized citizens and Fan said his father supported their family as the owner of several different Asian restaurants before he got into property investments and then retired.
The 27-year-old said he was not a political person until his friends coaxed him into joining Asians for Trump in 2020 and when he came to the Capitol on Jan. 6, “there were no issues” at first but “then at some point things just got crazy.”
“Mr. Fan did not at any point knock down any barricade nor did he assault any other person. Mr. Fan does admit to stepping over the barriers and not stopping those persons who were being destructive and violent,” Thering wrote in a sentencing memorandum filed earlier this month.
Fan also acknowledged that he made a “conscientious effort” to access Schumer’s staff room despite lacking any permission to do so.
Fan’s father Kin Kok Fan said in a letter of support that his son told him he helped police pick up broken pieces of glass. Kok Fan said his son also told him he “prevented another person from reaching through the broken window to take a laptop computer.”
Fan’s lawyer said when he reviewed footage of the break-in of the staff office, he could hear bystanders standing outside Schumer’s staff office speaking to Capitol police. The video made it apparent that his client was trying to clean up the glass and cooperate with police, Thering said, including by “placing his wrists together to be handcuffed without being asked.”
“Mr. Fan was never handcuffed, only escorted out of the building by Capitol Police,” Thering wrote. “Counsel makes mention of this to help put Mr. Kim Kok Fan’s statement in perspective and to add to the validity of the statement, but not to minimize Mr. [Alexander] Fan’s criminal behavior.”
A lawyer for Alexander Fan says his client, circled in red, appears here being willingly escorted out of the Capitol rotunda on Jan. 6, 2021.
While out on bond, Fan has held down jobs at three restaurants, has committed no crimes and has not consumed any drugs or alcohol.
Going toward his character, Thering also pointed out that when Fan was arrested in Houston, an attending FBI task force officer, Reggie Broughton, spoke glowingly of Fan and his family.
As it turns out, Thering and Broughton have known each other since 1994 and Thering disclosed that to the court in his memorandum as well as to prosecutors previously. The friendship meant Broughton could not express his views in writing however though he did give Thering permission to convey this high opinion of the Fans to the court.
Broughton said “Fan and his family were extremely cooperative during the investigation and seemed very remorseful.”
Broughton felt it was “unfortunate that Mr. Fan was caught up in the whole ordeal,” Thering added.
Though Fan has accused Nicholas Williams of stealing from him, court records show he did not ask to withdraw his guilty plea.
Meanwhile, an attorney for Williams did not immediately respond to a request for comment Tuesday but records indicate he is accused of stealing money from a number of private residences going as far back as 2022.
The indictment alleges that from March 2022 to April 2022, and then again from January to July 2023, Williams “embezzled and wrongfully converted to his own use the money and property of another which came into his possession and under his control in the execution” of his role as a federal agent. In September of that same year, prosecutors say he knowingly made a false statement to explain fraudulent charges on his government-issued credit card and “created and disseminated an [FBI] electronic communication record which he knew to be false.”
Williams, who was part of a unit that investigated violent gang activity as well as a counterterrorism squad, is also charged with stealing cellphones during investigations spanning November 2022 to March 2023. He faces up to 10 years in prison if convicted.
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