Infowars 'War Room' host Owen Shroyer pleads guilty to entering restricted area during Capitol riot
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Infowars host Owen Shroyer, who promoted baseless claims of 2020 election fraud on the far-right internet platform, pleaded guilty on Friday to joining the mob of Donald Trump supporters who rioted at the U.S. Capitol. Shroyer, who didn’t enter the Capitol but led rioters in chants near the top of the building's steps, pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor charge of illegally entering a restricted area. U.S. District Judge Timothy Kelly scheduled a Sept. 12 sentencing hearing for the 33-year-old Shroyer, who has hosted a daily show called “The War Room With Owen Shroyer” for the website operated by conspiracy theorist Alex Jones.
Shroyer, who didn’t enter the Capitol but led rioters in chants near the top of the building's steps, pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor charge of illegally entering a restricted area. The charge carries a maximum sentence of one year behind bars.
Outside the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, Shroyer stood in front of a crowd with a megaphone and yelled that Democrats are “tyrants.”
"And so today, on January 6, we declare death to tyranny! Death to tyrants!" he shouted.
Near the top of steps on the Capitol’s east side, Shroyer, who’s from Austin, Texas, led hundreds of rioters in chants of “USA!” and “1776!” He later said in an affidavit that he stood with Jones as Jones tried to deescalate the situation.
"The First Amendment permits and protects the rights of individuals to assemble and engage in demonstrations that confront and criticize the government, even when those demonstrations become rowdy or unruly," Pattis wrote.
Prosecutors said the First Amendment doesn’t protect the conduct for which Shroyer was charged.
Shroyer, who has worked at Infowars since 2016, said he went to Washington, D.C., with Jones and others who worked for the website. Jones hasn't been charged with any Jan. 6-related crimes.
An Infowars video promoting “the big D.C. marches on the 5th and 6th of January” ended with a graphic of Shroyer and others in front of the Capitol.
A day before the Capitol insurrection, Shroyer called in to a live Infowars broadcast and internet program and said, “Everybody knows this election was stolen.”
"Are we just going to sit here and become activists for four years or are we going to actually do something about this, whatever that cause or course of cause may be?” he added, according to prosecutors.
Shroyer said in an affidavit that he accompanied Jones and his security detail to Capitol grounds on Jan. 6.
“I walked with Mr. Jones up several steps and stood near him as he addressed the crowd from a bullhorn urging them to leave the area and behave peacefully,” Shroyer said.
Also on Friday, a Colorado man who marched to the Capitol with members of the Proud Boys and was one of the first rioters to enter the building was sentenced to four years in prison for attacking police officers with a chemical spray as they tried to hold off the mob of Trump supporters.
Gieswein repeatedly sprayed an “aerosol irritant” at police officers and pushed against a line of police, according to a court filing accompanying his guilty plea to assault charges.
“You were a foot soldier in one of the most disturbing riots our nation has seen in years,” U.S. District Judge Trevor McFadden told Gieswein, who gets credit for the more than two years that he already has served in custody.
Federal authorities have said Gieswein appeared to be an adherent of the Three Percenters militia movement and ran a private paramilitary training group called the Woodland Wild Dogs.
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