Infowars Host Sentenced to 60 Days in Prison in Jan. 6 Case
Infowars Host Owen Shroyer was sentenced to 60 days in prison on Tuesday for participating in the protests around the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol. Despite not having actually entered the Capitol building, Shroyer pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor charge of illegally entering a restricted area on Jan. 6 in violation of a deferred prosecution agreement he’d made after disrupting a congressional hearing in 2019.
As part of the 2020 deferment deal, Shroyer had agreed not to engage in “loud, threatening, or abusive language, or to engage in any disorderly or disruptive conduct, at any place upon the United States Capitol Grounds.”
According to prosecutors, Shroyer himself heavily documented his actions around the Capitol on Jan. 5 and 6, and posted various videos of himself on the Infowars website. Shroyer’s longtime boss and InfoWars founder, Alex Jones, was also present at the protests, but has not been charged in relation to his activities on Jan. 6.
According to the Department of Justice, “in a video posted to the Infowars website on January 5, 2021, Shroyer gave an address in Freedom Plaza in Washington D.C., during which he stated: ‘Americans are ready to fight. We’re not exactly sure what that’s going to look like perhaps in a couple of weeks if we can’t stop this certification of the fraudulent election… we are the new revolution! We are going to restore and we are going to save the republic!’”
Prosecutors alleged that on Jan. 6, Shroyer entered restricted areas on the Capitol grounds and remained there as rioters stormed the building.
“On January 6, 2021, Shroyer marched to the U.S. Capitol from the Ellipse shortly before the U.S. Capitol was breached. One video depicted Shroyer, marching with other individuals, leading a crowd of people in a ‘1776!’ chant as the host of the Infowars show on which the video was streamed stated, ‘Alex Jones at this moment is leading the march toward the Capitol building,'” the criminal complaint reads. “In the same video, Shroyer can be heard telling the crowd, ‘today we march for the Capitol because on this historic January 6, 2021, we have to let our Congressmen and women know, and we have to let Mike Pence know, they stole the election, we know they stole it, and we aren’t going to accept it!'”
The DOJ alleged that Shroyer was “seen standing above the crowd on the west side of the Capitol next to the inauguration stage.”
The 60-day sentence is half of the amount requested by prosecutors. During the sentencing, U.S. District Judge Tim Kelly argued that Shroyer’s actions had aided in “amping up” the rioters as the situation around the Capitol became increasingly volatile. Judge Kelly also conceded that Shroyer’s case was “unique,” given that he would likely have escaped charges save for his previous disruptive actions within the Capitol.
More from Rolling Stone
Jan 6. Jail Time: Proud Boys Cry Over the Consequences of Their Own Actions
Jack Smith's Team Grilled Witnesses About Rudy Giuliani's Drinking
DOJ Rips Trump's Push to Delay 2020 Election Trial Three Years
Best of Rolling Stone
