At Shroyer’s sentencing hearing, Pattis — who also represents Biggs and Alex Jones — repeated that Shroyer was not part of any larger plot, that Alex Jones has not been charged because he was recorded on video appearing to try to divert a crowd away from the building, and that Shroyer alone among the group walking with Jones was charged and pleaded guiltyStill, Pattis called prosecutors’ request for jail time “chilling,” saying in a court filing that they sought to “criminalize dissent” through...
But the judge said, “Nothing you’re being prosecuted for and nothing about your conduct that day was about being a journalist,” and all the Constitution’s protections for the rights to free speech, protest, petition and elections did not extend to joining a mob “using violence and the threat of violence” to prevent Congress from performing its duty to affirm the 2020 election results and maintain the peaceful transfer of power.
In a sentencing memo, assistant U.S. attorneys Troy A. Edwards, Jr., and Kimberly Paschall sought a four-month prison term, saying that Shroyer and others drove an angry mob to Washington, and “cannot light a fire near a can of gasoline, and then express concern or disbelief when it explodes.” Prosecutors said Infowars “drastically amplified his thinly veiled calls to violence on January 6th,” and that Shroyer “spread election disinformation paired with violent rhetoric to hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of viewers.”
Afterward, Shroyer continued to spread baseless claims that Trump won the 2020 election, and will win next year unless there is fraud, and told followers they “should be proud” of events that day that led to multiple deaths, injured scores of police, and caused $3 million in damage and an evacuation of lawmakers and staff.“This defendant needs to be deterred from returning to commit specifically this type of conduct ever again,” prosecutors said.