By Jan Wolfe
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. prosecutors have charged a Texas man who hosts a talk show tied to the conspiracy-theory website InfoWars with unlawfully breaching the U.S. Capitol grounds during the Jan. 6 riot by supporters of then-President Donald Trump.
Owen Shroyer unlawfully entered a restricted area at the west side of the Capitol during the deadly rampage that interrupted the formal congressional certification of President Joe Biden’s 2020 election victory, prosecutors said in court papers unsealed on Friday.
He hosts a talk show associated with Infowars, called “The War Room With Owen Shroyer,” streamed daily on an InfoWars platform, prosecutors said.
Shroyer faces two misdemeanor charges: violent entry and disorderly conduct on Capitol grounds, and unlawfully entering a restricted area.
The court papers included a photograph of Shroyer at the Capitol on Jan. 6 with Alex Jones, a right-wing media personality and the founder of InfoWars. Jones, who has not been charged in connection with the riot, participated in pro-Trump events in Washington on Jan. 5 and Jan. 6 and helped promote the former president’s false claims that the 2020 election was stolen from him through widespread voting fraud.
Shroyer led a crowd of people who marched from a park near the White House to the Capitol on Jan. 6, an FBI agent said in a court filing.
The agent said video footage showed Shroyer leading chants and 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!” Pence was Trump’s vice president.
More than 570 people have been charged in connection with the riot at the Capitol.
(Reporting by Jan Wolfe; Editing by Will Dunham)
