By Alanna Durkin Richer
The Associated Press
A host of the right-wing website Infowars, Owen Shroyer, has been charged in connection to the Jan. 6 riot at the U.S. Capitol, according to court documents filed Friday.
Shroyer, who hosts “The War Room With Owen Shroyer” on the website operated by conspiracy theorist Alex Jones, faces misdemeanor charges such as disorderly conduct and entering a restricted area of Capitol grounds.
There was no lawyer listed for him in federal court and he could not immediately be reached on Friday.
Shroyer is the second person who works for Infowars to face federal charges stemming from Jan. 6.
Samuel Montoya, an Infowars video editor, was arrested in April on charges including impeding passage through the Capitol grounds. Montoya spoke on an Infowars show about witnessing a police officer shoot and kill a woman inside the Capitol.
Authorities say video shows Shroyer marching to the Capitol from the Ellipse shortly before the building was breached, 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!”
Shroyer was seen on the west side of the Capitol next to the inauguration stage as well as at the top of the stairs on the east side of the Capitol, authorities said in the documents.
Authorities say Shroyer was vocal in advance of Jan. 6 about stopping the certification of the Electoral College vote. The day before the riot, he spoke at Freedom Plaza, declaring: “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!” according to the court papers.
Shroyer was arrested in December 2019 for shouting during a House Judiciary Committee impeachment hearing. He received a deferred prosecution agreement in that case, in which he agreed to do community service and follow certain conditions, like not engaging in disorderly or disruptive conduct on Capitol grounds, according to court documents.
He hadn’t completed any of the required community service hours as of Jan. 6, so that agreement was still in effect, authorities said.
Nearly 600 people have been charged with federal crimes in the deadly riot that interrupted the certification of President Joe Biden’s victory, and nearly 40 people have pleaded guilty.
Dozens of people — including a former Tennessee sheriff’s deputy arrested this week — have been charged with assaulting law enforcement officers who were trying to protect the Capitol.
Video shows Ronald Colton McAbee, who left the Williamson County Sheriff’s Office in March, wearing a “Make America Great Again” hat and a black tactical vest with the word “sheriff” on it as he brawled with officers at a Capitol archway, authorities said in court documents. Authorities said he was also wearing an insignia linked to the Three Percenters antigovernment extremist movement.
McAbee, wearing metal-knuckled gloves and armed with a baton or stick, tried to drag an officer who had been thrown to the ground toward the mob, according to court documents. When another officer tried to come to the aid of his colleague, McAbee swung at him before turning back to the other officer, pulling him out of the archway and pinning him down.
McAbee’s lawyer declined Friday to comment.
