Infowars Reporter Owen Shroyer Very Sad Alex Jones Won't Pay Him To Go To Jail For January 6 Crimes
Do many jobs include treason pay? Is that a thing now?
Owen Shroyer, who hosts a fake TV show on the internet for conspiracy theorist and serial liar Alex Jones, reported to federal prison Tuesday to begin serving a 60-day sentence for his role in the January 6 riot, but he’s not happy about how he’s being treated, not one bit. No, it’s not that he’s mad at the federal government for railroading him; that’s a given. Rather, Shroyer is upset that InfoWars can’t afford to pay him for the time he’s in prison, and also that the fake news propagator couldn’t even have a camera crew on hand to document the history-making moment when he checks in to federal prison as a “political prisoner” who’s being oppressed simply for exercising his right to “free speech.”
Daily Beast reporter Zachary Petrizzo broke the news on Xitter Monday evening, writing that
Things are looking incredibly bleak for InfoWars host and Jan 6er Owen Shroyer, who now says InfoWars wants little to do with him as he surrenders for prison. "InfoWars can no longer cover any security expenses," he said. "So there's not going to be a crew sent to my turn-in."
An hour later, Petrizzo added that there was “More bad news for Shroyer,” as Shroyer said in an InfoWars segment that
InfoWars decided they would not pay him while in jail. "Unfortunately, it only got worse and more complicated when I found out that InfoWars...would not be paying me anymore while I'm away," he said.
Talk about an injustice! Notice here that Shroyer blames this terrible situation not on a federal conspiracy — for once — but on the regrettable penury of his employer, no doubt because Alex Jones is being oppressed by having to cough up damages to the families of kids murdered at Sandy Hook Elementary a decade ago, simply because Jones claimed the mass shooting was a hoax. (Shroyer, we’ll note, helped to amplify that lie too, though he wasn’t a subject of the lawsuit.)
As NBC News explains, Shroyer’s conviction was a little unusual as far as January 6 cases go, because he didn’t enter the Capitol itself or assault any cops. But after Shroyer interrupted a congressional hearing in 2019, he agreed in a plea deal — to stay out of jail that time — not to
utter “loud, threatening, or abusive language, or to engage in any disorderly or disruptive conduct, at any place upon the United States Capitol Grounds.”
On January 6, Shroyer was right there on Capitol Grounds using a bullhorn to be pretty damn disruptive, urging the crowd to go water that Tree of Liberty with the blood of Democrats, who are even worse than commies, they’re tyrants:
“Democrats are posing as communists, but we know what they really are: They’re just tyrants; they’re tyrants,” Shroyer said on a bullhorn as he led a crowd to the Capitol on Jan. 6. “And so today, on Jan. 6, we declare death to tyranny! Death to tyrants!”
The government sought 120 days of incarceration, saying that while Shroyer did not step foot inside the Capitol, "many of those who listened to him" did.
Also too, Shroyer insisted at his sentencing in September that he hadn’t been trying to stir up the crowd to go do actual death to tyrants, but that he was in fact helping to defuse the angry mob by leading chants of “1776!” and “USA!” He told US District Judge Timothy Kelly that “It was to get the attention and draw the crowds away,” although Kelly wasn’t buying any of that trucker speed, no thank you:
“Context is everything,” the judge said. “I do not believe that you were trying to distract the crowd or turn the crowd away from the Capitol.”
We watched some of the InfoWars video of Shroyer pretending to be a defiant free speech martyr; the InfoWars site is careful to frame the video with reminders that viewers can go make a donation to Shroyer’s “defense fund” and to his online merch store to help out, and Shroyer himself listed the URLs just to be sure, making clear that the store front was there to help “fund me in my personal life, because I’m going through a lot right now.”
Far from “distancing” himself from Shroyer, Jones broke in to lament that “InfoWars is so shot up” that “we can’t even pay you while you’re in jail, while you’re in prison for this period.”
At the end of a short video posted to Xitter yesterday, Shroyer does at least mention that his prison term is 60 days, but for the most part, he, Jones, and other wingnuts elide the short length of the sentence, talking as if he’s being locked up forever by “the globalists.”
Gosh how sad it all is. MAGA Chud third-or-fourth-place Republican candidate Vivek Ramaswamy took to Xitter yesterday to cry about how unfair it all is, and to promise yet again to pardon all the non-violent January 6 Capitol rioters.
“Owen Shroyer was sentenced to prison for *speech*, not violence, on Jan 6 – for marching around the Capitol, using a bullhorn, & shouting things like ‘1776!’ No violence. Didn’t enter the Capitol. That’s it. The DOJ used ‘evidence’ provided by the FBI to pursue this man and countless others. There is no greater threat to the First Amendment than the use of police power to silence political dissent. I’ve said it for months, on day 1, I will pardon all non-violent Jan 6 protesters & political prisoners. #FreeOwen”
Again, he was prosecuted because he violated the terms of his 2019 plea deal by being on Capitol grounds and doing a disorderly conduct, including his efforts to amp up the crowd, not for saying “1776.”
In conclusion, won’t you please help Owen Shroyer by completely ignoring him as you previously had been? His only hope is to finally understand that he’s not Patrick Henry, he’s a very naughty boy.
[Zachary Petrizzo on Twitter / NBC News / AP]
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If you're any good at negotiating, you should always ask in the job interview whether a prospective employer will pay you while you're in federal prison.
Well fuck. I just reviewed my own employment contract, and it does not look like there is anything in there about my employer having to continue to pay me if I get caught engaging in a little light insurrection or attempt to overthrow the government, or get thrown in jail or prison for pooping on the hoods of parked cars. Where's my First Amendments?