The Supreme Court has rejected an appeal from InfoWars host Owen Shroyer concerning his conviction linked to the January 6th protests.
Shroyer, a highly popular commentator and activist with Alex Jones’s InfoWars, was convicted of a misdemeanor and sentenced to 60 days in prison after pleading guilty to engaging in “disruptive and riotous behavior” at the Capitol Building, despite never entering the building.
His appeal was denied as part of a routine list of orders released on Monday morning, with no Justice dissenting or commenting on the decision.
In his petition to the court, Shroyer’s lawyers argued that the District Court failed to acknowledge his “unique role” as a journalist and violated his First Amendment rights.
“The precedent has been set. You can be arrested & sentenced for legal & lawful speech,” Shroyer wrote on X after his appeal was rejected. “My case was the precedent. The message is clear. Speak out against government & risk arrest,” he added.
Although Shroyer did not enter the Capitol, he had previously signed a deferred prosecution agreement after disrupting a House Judiciary Committee hearing during Donald Trump’s impeachment proceedings in 2019.
As part of the agreement, Shroyer agreed not to “utter loud, threatening, or abusive language or engage in any disorderly or disruptive conduct” anywhere on the U.S. Capitol Grounds with the “intent to disrupt the orderly conduct of any congressional session.”
After attending the Stop the Steal rallies on January 6th, prosecutors targeted Shroyer, accusing him of inciting the events with his prior “violent rhetoric.”
“The Democrats are posing as communists, but we know what they really are,” he said at the time. “They’re just tyrants, they’re tyrants. And so today, on January 6, we declare death to tyranny! Death to tyrants!”
“Shroyer helped create January 6,” the prosecutors wrote at the time.
“Shroyer cannot light a fire near a can of gasoline and then express concern or disbelief when it explodes,” they added.
For now, Shroyer’s ordeal of imprisonment and prosecution has ended. However, the battle for justice continues for the hundreds of others who protested the 2020 presidential election results.
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