Capitol riot charges against an Infowars host could spell trouble for Alex Jones

[Nevilledog]

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Mark Follman
@markfollman
Alex Jones may now be vulnerable to charges in the January 6 insurrection. Details from MoJo’s @dfriedman33

Capitol riot charges against an Infowars host could spell trouble for Alex Jones
Owen Shroyer is charged with entering a restricted area on January 6. He was with Jones at the time.
motherjones.com
8:40 AM · Aug 21, 2021

https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2021/08/capitol-riot-charges-against-an-infowars-host-could-spell-trouble-for-alex-jones/

Watch out, Alex Jones. The Justice Department on Friday evening charged Owen Shroyer, who hosts a show on Infowars, the conspiracy theory fueled website run by Jones, with disorderly conduct and entering a restricted area of Capitol grounds on January 6.

On the air Friday evening, Shoryer said he will turn himself in Monday. “I plan on declaring innocence of these charges because I am,” he said.

More than 600 people have been charged with taking part in the January 6 attack. Shroyer is now one of just a few who did not enter the Capitol building itself. (The charges against Shoryer are misdemeanors.)

A federal complaint against Shroyer says that he entered restricted areas outside—and it notes he was with Jones at the time. The complaint includes images of Shroyer in restricted areas, along with Jones. The images include one picture of Shroyer, near Jones, at the top of the stairs on the east side of the Capitol. This came after the crowd had pushed past police officers guarding the area.

*snip*

[blogslug]

1. I found Marcy Wheeler's explainer about Shroyer's current charges to be helpful

https://www.emptywheel.net/2021/08/20/the-how-of-owen-shroyers-arrest/

Shroyer had been previously arrested for disruption (2019) at the Capitol in 2020. The result was a Deferred Prosecution Agreement, which, was still effective on Jan 6 2021 because dude futzed around on his community service:

...The other part of Shroyer’s DPA, aside from the community service he was clearly dodging, was a requirement that he not similarly engage in such disorderly conduct again at the “Capitol,” which was defined by a map that Shroyer signed, which actually may be broader than the protected space that DOJ is charging in the January 6 cases (and so easily encompasses the stage on which Shroyer appeared with Alex Jones).

*snip*

In other words, whereas the thousands of other people participating in the January 6 riot might believe they’d only get into trouble if they walked in the building, Shroyer had notice that the protected grounds were broader than that. And he not only may have been subject to a broader protected grounds than those other thousands of people, but it was a violation of his DPA to do it.

Plus, the government claims he played fast and loose with his community service, which meant that even though his crime was committed on December 9, 2019, his DPA remained in place until … well, it’s still in place because Shroyer did only 30 hours, rather than 32 hours, of community service, but it certainly was in place on January 6, because he had done none of his community service at that point...

[dmr]

4. Thank you for posting this.

Shroyer is another one who thinks he can thumb his nose at the law and its punishments.

I'd like to see the book thrown at him since he's proven that he cannot be trusted to fulfill his obligations, the only recourse is to jail him for a very long time ... and take Alex with him.

[crickets]

5. Yikes. Thanks for posting a great article, blogslug.

It's amazing that Jones himself hasn't been charged yet.

[Hugin]

3. If I had a nickel for every time I've read that headline about Jones.

I could afford to subscribe to all of the maxes, pluses, and goes to stream into my it-watches-teevee-so-I-don't-have-to-device (AKA DVR) it apparently needs.

Still, nothing... Jones is still at every armed insurrection this country ever has.