Shroyer has been charged in connection with the U.S. Capitol raid on Jan. 6, when followers of then-President Donald Trump attempted to block lawmakers from certifying the November 2020 presidential election.
For weeks, the host of The War Room with Owen Shroyer had spread the lie that the election had been rigged against Trump. But he’s now facing federal charges over his alleged participation in the insurrection.
“There’s a lot of questions. Some I have answers to; some I don’t,” Shroyer said on Friday. “I plan on declaring innocence of these charges, because I am.”
Shroyer faces misdemeanor charges, including knowingly entering or remaining in any restricted building or ground without lawful authority and violent entry and disorderly conduct on Capitol grounds. Federal court records did not list a lawyer for him.Alex Jones’ sidekick Owen Shroyer announces on-air today that he just learned that there is a warrant for his arrest for his conduct on Jan 6, and he has to turn himself in to authorities. pic.twitter.com/ShGYs3kAgB
— Ron Filipkowski (@RonFilipkowski) August 20, 2021
According to court documents, video shows Shroyer marching to the U.S. Capitol and telling a crowd of people that they had “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!”
Shroyer entered a restricted area on Capitol grounds, which was a problem.
In 2019, Capitol police arrested him for disrupting a House Judiciary Committee impeachment hearing. According to The New York Times, Shroyer livestreamed himself shouting in the packed room.
“[House Judiciary Committee Chair] Jerry Nadler and the Democrat Party are committing treason against this country!” he said, according to that outlet.
From there, Shroyer received a deferred prosecution agreement and consented to do community service, court documents show. He also promised to abide by certain conditions, including not engaging in disruptive or disorderly conduct on the grounds of the Capitol.
The agreement was still active as of Jan. 6 because Shroyer hadn’t completed any community service at that time.
"Jerry Nadler and the Democrat Party are committing treason against this country!" – Owen Shroyer
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At least 58 Texans have been charged in connection with the U.S. Capitol riot; overall, the FBI has charged more than 575 people, according to USA Today. The FBI's Dallas office has arrested 31 people across its division, which covers much of the state's top half, spokeswoman Melinda Urbina said.
Some Texans facing similar charges are working their way through the courts. Last week, Frisco real estate broker Jenna Ryan pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor count of parading, picketing or demonstrating in the Capitol.
Infowars founder Alex Jones played an “instrumental role” in the insurrection, said Heidi Beirich, an expert on extremism and co-founder of the Global Project Against Hate and Extremism. For decades, Jones promoted baseless conspiracy theories such as Pizzagate and QAnon, as well as anti-government movements.
Beirich said Infowars is responsible for a lot of the radicalization on the far-right because they've been major peddlers of misinformation, disinformation and “outright lies.” Over time, Jones has built a pro-conspiracy audience, which was part of Trump’s base.
Facebook eventually booted Infowars, but Jones is still monetized by hawking “bizarre products” on his huge web platform, she said. Two-thirds of Republicans still believe the election was rigged, for which Infowars is partly to blame.
“We have this polarization of people who believe stuff that’s just flat-out untrue and often dangerous,” Beirich said.
The Wall Street Journal also reports that Jones helped to fund the rally that preceded the Capitol siege.
Shroyer was mentioned in the Southern Poverty Law Center’s “The Year in Hate and Extremism 2020” report for his role in anti-government extremism. He'd protested outside the governor’s mansion last year over COVID-19 lockdown orders, demanding that officials be held accountable for supposedly infringing on the rights of American citizens.
He'd also claimed the coronavirus death toll was Chinese propaganda, and at a subsequent rally with Jones, compared mask mandates with slavery.
“We’re going to tell the globalists, ‘We’re not your slaves, we’re not in your cult, and if you want war, you better believe you got war,’” Jones yelled into a bullhorn.
Another Infowars employee named Samuel Montoya is facing federal charges related to Jan. 6, according to The Associated Press. Montoya claimed during an Infowars show that he’d witnessed law enforcement lethally shoot a woman in the Capitol.
Beirich wasn’t shocked to see Shroyer arrested and expects that others could soon follow.
“I won’t be surprised if other folks connected with Infowars pop up somewhere, just because they’re in the middle of what happened on Jan. 6,” she said. “So we’ll see.”
