WASHINGTON (AP) 鈥 Infowars host Owen Shroyer was sentenced on Tuesday to two months behind bars for joining the mob's riot at the U.S. Capitol, which prosecutors said he 鈥渉elped create鈥 by spewing violent rhetoric and spreading baseless claims of election fraud to hundreds of thousands of viewers.
Shroyer hosts a daily show called 鈥淭he War Room With Owen Shroyer鈥 for the website operated by . Prosecutors said Shroyer used his online platform 鈥 and later a megaphone outside the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021 鈥 to amplify lies that Democrats stole the 2020 presidential election from Donald Trump, who was the Republican incumbent.
Shroyer didn鈥檛 enter the Capitol, but he led a march to the building and led rioters in chants near the top of the building鈥檚 steps. He's among only a few people charged in the riot who neither went inside the building nor were accused of engaging in violence or destruction.
He to illegally entering a restricted area 鈥 a misdemeanor punishable by a maximum sentence of one year behind bars.
Shroyer didn't need to set foot inside the Capitol because many of his followers did, prosecutors argued. They said Shroyer spread election disinformation and 鈥渢hinly veiled calls to violence鈥 on Jan. 6 to Infowars viewers in the weeks leading up to the attack.
鈥淪hroyer helped create January 6,鈥
Prosecutors had sought four months behind bars for Shroyer, 34, of Austin, Texas.
Shroyer told U.S. District Judge Timothy Kelly that he wasn鈥檛 part of any plan for violence or other illegal activity on Jan. 6. He also said he wasn鈥檛 trying to stir up the crowd with his chants.
鈥淚t was to get the attention and draw the crowds away,鈥 he said.
Kelly told the Infowars host that there was nothing patriotic about joining a mob that interfered with the peaceful transfer of presidential power from Trump to Joe Biden. Kelly said Shroyer 鈥渁mped up鈥 the mob on the Capitol steps with his amplified words.
鈥淐ontext is everything,鈥 the judge said. 鈥淚 do not believe that you were trying to distract the crowd or turn the crowd away from the Capitol.鈥
A date for Shroyer to report to prison wasn't immediately set. His attorney, Norm Pattis, said he planned to appeal the sentence.
In December 2019, Shroyer was arrested in Washington after he disrupted a House Judiciary Committee hearing for then-President Trump's impeachment proceedings. He later agreed to stay away from Capitol grounds, a condition of a deal resolving that case.
In the weeks before the Capitol riot, Shroyer 鈥渟toked the flames of a potential disruption of the (Jan. 6) certification vote by streaming disinformation about alleged voter fraud and a stolen election鈥 on his show, prosecutors wrote. In November 2020, he warned that 鈥渋t鈥檚 not going to be a million peaceful marchers in D.C.鈥 if Biden, a Democrat, became president.
An Infowars video promoting 鈥渢he big D.C. marches on the 5th and 6th of January鈥 ended with a graphic of Shroyer and others in front of the Capitol. A day before the Capitol riot, Shroyer called in to a live Infowars broadcast and internet program and said, 鈥淓verybody knows this election was stolen.鈥
Shroyer, who has worked at Infowars since 2016, said in an affidavit that he accompanied Jones and his security detail to Capitol grounds on Jan. 6.
鈥淚 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,鈥 Shroyer said.
Jones hasn鈥檛 been charged with any Jan. 6-related crimes.
Outside the Capitol, Shroyer stood in front of a crowd with a megaphone and yelled, 鈥淭he Democrats are posing as communists, but we know what they really are: they鈥檙e just tyrants, they鈥檙e tyrants. And so today, on January 6, we declare death to tyranny! Death to tyrants!鈥 Shroyer also led hundreds of rioters in chants of 鈥淯SA!鈥 and 鈥1776!鈥
After Jan. 6, Shroyer used his show to promote conspiracy theories about the riot, trying to shift the blame to left-wing 鈥渁ntifa鈥 activists and even the FBI, prosecutors said. After his arrest, Shroyer raised nearly $250,000 through an online campaign described as his defense fund.
Pattis, the defense lawyer, has said Shroyer attended as a journalist who intended to cover the event for his Infowars show. Pattis has repeatedly accused prosecutors of trampling on Shroyer鈥檚 free speech rights
鈥淢r. Shroyer, and every person capable of speaking in the United States, has a right to utter the speech Mr. Shroyer used. That the Government would suggest otherwise is a frightening commentary on our times,鈥
Prosecutors said the First Amendment doesn鈥檛 protect the conduct for which Shroyer was charged. Shroyer and others 鈥渟toked the fires of discontent鈥 about driving a mob of individuals to descend on Washington, D.C., on January 6th.
鈥淪hroyer cannot light a fire near a can of gasoline, and then express concern or disbelief when it explodes,鈥 they wrote.
Shroyer is one of two Infowars employees arrested on Capitol riot charges. , who worked as a video editor for Jones鈥 website, was sentenced in April to four months of home detention. Montoya entered the Capitol and captured footage of a police officer fatally shooting a rioter, .
. Over 650 of them have pleaded guilty. More than 600 have been sentenced, with over half receiving terms of imprisonment ranging from three days to 22 years.
