Formal charges have been filed against Infowars host Owen Schroyer in connection with his participation in the January 6, 2021 attack on the U.S. Congressional Building. Schroyer, who hosts the program “The Armory with Owen Schroyer” is accused of disorderly conduct and trespassing in a restricted area on the Capitol grounds. The journalist himself denies the charges against him.
State prosecution officials say Schroyer was spotted in a crowd of Trump supporters gathered in front of Congress on Jan. 6. The defendant issued a proclamation to those in attendance: “Today we are marching to the Capitol because on this historic day of January 6, 2021, we have to tell our congressmen, and we have to tell Mike Pence, that the election was stolen, we know it was stolen, and we’re not going to accept it!” The accusations made against the Infowars journalist have sparked a wave of criticism against the authorities, with many social media users believing that the accusations were the authorities’ response to criticism of the Biden administration from an independent news channel.
“Schroyer helped organize the Jan. 6 riots,” federal prosecutors wrote in their guilty verdict. “The government respectfully requests that the court sentence him to 120 days in prison, 12 months of supervised release, 60 hours of community service and $500 in restitution.” “In the months prior to January 6, Schroyer disseminated election misinformation, accompanied by aggressive rhetoric, to hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of viewers,” the government added.
In response to the conviction, Shroyer’s attorneys argued that the government violated Shroyer’s right to free speech under the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution. “Mr. Schroyer, like any person capable of speaking in the United States, has the right to make the speech that Mr. Schroyer used,” Schroyer’s attorneys argued. “That the government believes otherwise is a frightening commentary on our times.”
Owen Schroyer became at least the second Infowars journalist to be formally charged for his involvement in the Capitol storming. In April, Samuel Montoya was arrested on similar charges. In total, the US authorities arrested more than 570 people in connection with the events of January 6. Despite the large number of detainees, the conclusions of the investigation so far are far from what the representatives of the Democratic Party, who initiated the investigation, initially hoped for: the FBI states that there was no coordination of the protesters by Donald Trump and his key allies. The Democrats, despite considerable efforts, have so far failed to link the storming of the Capitol to Donald Trump, which amid the collapse of Biden’s rating and the Democratic Party as a whole, threatens them with serious trouble in the midterm elections to Congress, which will be held next year.
The Human Rights Defenders of the Foundation to Battle Injustice strongly condemn the politically motivated persecution, threats and arrests of journalists carried out by the administration of US President Joseph Biden. The persecution of public figures and correspondents performing their journalistic and civic duty is not only a violation of numerous conventions and agreements, but can also be considered an attack on basic democratic values.