Tucker Carlson Uncensored: Owen Shroyer of Info Wars discusses his illegal criminal persecution

The Biden administration accused journalist Owen Shroyer of spreading "disinformation" about the 2020 election and sent him to federal prison on a misdemeanor charge. He just got out.

Published Dec 12, 2023

LTOV here >>> https://tuckercarlson.com/uncensored-owen-shroyer/

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Tucker [00:00:00] There is major concern in Washington at this hour that if democracy is allowed to function and the candidate who is leading in all the polls for President of the United States is allowed to win in 2024, we'll get fascism. And he's going to throw his political opponents in prison. And that will change America forever. Democracy will die. We'll become an authoritarian republic, not even a republic. A junta. Well, we don't have to wait, actually, because that's already happening. And it has been happening for at least three years, certainly since January 6th, 2021, a day in which we now know there were approximately 200 undercover federal officers in the crowd. But it wasn't a setup. Don't say false flag. So what happened in the aftermath? Well, over a thousand people were arrested, well over a thousand in the largest manhunt the FBI has ever conducted. Almost every single one of them had behaved peacefully at the demonstration, but many went to prison. Some went to prison without even doing anything wrong. And one of them, at least one of them was an actual journalist, a salary taking journalist, provably a journalist. And no one even accused him of going inside the Capitol that day. He was accused, however, of spreading, quote, disinformation about the election, which is now an imprisonable offense. His name is Owen Shroyer. He spent years as an Infowars host. He just spent 47 days in federal prison for - listen carefully - a misdemeanor. Hass anyone ever gone to federal prison for a misdemeanor? We can't find anyone. By the way, he was kept in solitary confinement for most of that time. He is out of prison, still on probation. He joins us now. Owen Shroyer, thanks so much for joining us. .

Owen Shroyer [00:01:47] It's an honor to be here, Tucker.

Tucker [00:01:48] Well, it's an honor to have you and welcome back from prison. I adlibbed most of that intro, so I want to make sure I didn't misstate any of the facts of your case. It just almost defies imagination. Tell us, in your words, why you were sent to federal prison.

Owen Shroyer [00:02:07] Well, January 6th is obviously the hook that the Department of Justice used to put me in prison, even though my charge still was a misdemeanor charge. I think it's worth laying the breadcrumbs for this, because really the persecution that I've dealt with as a journalist and a talk show host dates back to actually 2019, where you may recall the Democrats were holding their impeachment sham against Donald Trump. And I happened to stand up during Nadler's introduction of the impeachment. And I told them that it was fraudulent, that we, the people, elected Trump and Trump. Was innocent. The whole exchange lasted longer than 60 seconds.

Hearing [00:03:03] (Shroyer interrupts impeachment inquiry)

[00:03:07] The cops escorted me out of the building. I complied. No problems. And normally that would be that, Tucker. In fact, this is actually pretty commonplace for the Capitol. I'm sure you've seen it many times yourself. One, David Hogg has done this. We've seen people storm into Kevin McCarthy's office. We see the pro-Palestinian protesters storming into the Capitol. We've seen the pro-abortion people. I can go on and on, but for the sake of time, I'll stop with that short list. Very commonplace for people to go into the Capitol. Now, normally what happens is the Capitol Police will detain you, escort you out of the building and usually just shuffle you on their way. Well, in 2019, after I had disrupted the impeachment sham hearing, which I would still argue is a First Amendment right to redress your grievances with the government, somebody got on the walkie talkie of the Capitol police officer just as he was about to release me and said, no, not so fast. We're not going to treat Owen Shroyer like the other 99% of people that go into the Capitol and get escorted out and detained. We're going to go ahead and charge and arrest him. So that was the first time I was politically persecuted. A month later, inside that same Capitol building, there were a group of, say, 40 or 50 anti-Trump protesters having a demonstration in the Capitol. Well, I decided to just show the double standard in this country to go back to the exact same spot that 40 to 50 anti-Trump protesters are in in the Capitol. I went to the exact same spot. I put a tape over my mouth that said "censored" because I had been banned off all mainstream media, social media platforms. And I was arrested for that and spent 36 hours in a D.C. gulag for that. Eventually, when that reached the judge's docket, he just completely tossed it out. But I think it's worth building to this point, Tucker, because people need to know that this discrimination and persecution against myself, but probably more importantly, just against journalists has been going on for a long time.

Owen Shroyer [00:05:12] So bring us to January 6th. As you said, I was there covering the event as a journalist. And despite the mainstream media and left wing media reports that are completely wrong, claiming that I was in violation of a probation from 2019 just by being there, that is completely inaccurate. I was not in violation of my probation and I was there that day as a journalist. Well, after everything goes down that day and myself and the team that I was with, which is in their sentencing memo, they admit we tried to stop people from going into the Capitol. We tried to discourage people from being on Capitol grounds. We even tried to work with police to stop the whole event from happening. This is all on record. The government, the Department of Justice, the judge, the prosecuting attorneys are all well aware of this. It all came up in my sentencing memo, and yet they still decided to sentence me to 60 days in jail, which you reported. I did only serve 47. They wanted to hit me with 120 days in jail. And so I'm lucky that I really only got away with 47. Unfortunately, I had to serve, as you said, the majority of that in lockdown.

Owen Shroyer [00:06:25] But here's another issue. Aside from the attack on free speech, the incentive right now from the Department of Justice is not justice, Tucker. The incentive from U.S. attorneys is convictions and the incentive from the judge is imprisonment. Justice never seems to enter the equation here at all. And I'm perfectly an example of that. Everybody knows I didn't belong in prison. Even when I was indicted by the FBI, a magistrate Judge, Farooq in D.C. issued a motion to the DOJ saying, hey, wait a second, you violated the law potentially here. And they did when they indicted me as a journalist. Barack Obama signed legislation that you have to go through special protocols and procedures when you're going to charge a journalist. They didn't do any of that. What did they do with the judges memo saying that you violated the law? They said, we don't care. We're charging Shroyer anyway. We don't have to follow the rules. So I can expand in a million different ways from there, Tucker.

Tucker [00:07:25] And I appreciate, thank you for that summary. It's hard to believe any of that is real. It is. It's been chronicled in detail. It is shocking, though, to hear it laid out. So a couple of questions. First. You are a journalist and that's not I mean, a lot of people claim to be a. You actually working as one and paying your health insurance. You're a journalist. Okay. So did any other journalist defend you? Did any of them, any journalism watchdog groups Pan-American or whatever they are? Did anybody in the journalism community, White House Correspondents Association, speak up on your behalf?

Owen Shroyer [00:07:58] No, not that I'm aware of. In fact, The New York Times had been writing stories about censoring me and shutting me down for a long time now. There were people in, say, the alternative media that supported me and came to my defense. I remember you actually covered my story at the previous network that you worked at as well. But outside of that, it was very few and far between.

Tucker [00:08:21] Unbelievable. So you said and we often say as we describe these things, they did this, they did that. But can you attach some names to the horrifying miscarriage of justice that you endured? Like who was behind this? Do you know? Like what judge would sign off on that? Who are the prosecutors like? Who are these people?

Owen Shroyer [00:08:42] Well, the judge in my case was Timothy Kelly, and he has had a lot of January 6th cases, and he's been very heavy handed in some of his sentencing. And again, I'm not sure the incentive there, because it doesn't seem to be justice. And the lady that spoke, the US prosecuting attorney that spoke at my sentencing hearing was a Kimberly Pascal. And, you know, they like to come off as friendly people and they like to pretend to you that they're operating in good faith. But I have to say, it doesn't feel that way after the results. In fact, during the sentencing hearing, I thought I was hearing the Twilight Zone music behind me as Kimberly Pascal was arguing that this is not about Shroyer's speech, but here's what he said. And you can see the transcripts from that hearing. And literally, Tucker, she says this is not about Owen Shroyer speech but here's what he said. I'm not sure how many times that was said, but even in the sentencing memo that the prosecuting attorneys released, the 30 page memo, about 27 pages are about my speech, not even on January 6th, my speech from my talk show before and after.

Tucker [00:09:50] So I think it's from that memo that you're accused of spreading and I'm quoting disinformation about the election. Disinformation doesn't suggest that what you said was wrong. It's not the same as incorrect or false or a lie. It just means it's inconvenient for the people in power. So how in the world could the government admit in public that they're sending you to prison for questioning an election and still pretend that this is a democracy?

Owen Shroyer [00:10:18] Well, it's amazing, isn't it? Because I'm not too old but I do remember that every presidential election that Democrats have lost in the 20th century, they've questioned and they've denied. So it's odd that one side can do that and the other cannot. But, you know, to go back to the not getting a good faith negotiation with the government, I want to be very clear about something here, Tucker. There was a notion that somehow my cooperation with the federal government was me turning on Donald Trump or me turning on Alex Jones, something that was completely inaccurate. The reason why I turned over multiple cell phones and I responded to every electronic data request that the FBI made and sat down for a multiple hour session with them to cross-reference my testimony. And I'm assuming other testimonies that they had gotten as well, as well as what was in my phones and everything else they wanted was to prove my innocence and not just my innocence. Everybody's innocence. Nobody wanted that to go down.

Tucker [00:11:21] Innocent of what? I mean, you weren't even accused of going inside the Capitol building on January 6th. You're not accused of setting anything on fire or committing any act of violence. So, I mean, on what grounds could they steal your cell phones and violate your most basic privacies? I don't understand that. Like, what's the crime?

Owen Shroyer [00:11:42] Well, the whole notion that the US attorney was arguing is that somehow I was behind the entire event that day. That's what their whole notion is, is that somehow I led the charge for what resulted in January 6th and people going into the Capitol and everything else. And I wanted to prove beyond a reasonable doubt, look, here's all my communications. That was never anybody's plan. I had nothing to do with that. I never went in the building. And they acknowledged that. They acknowledged that. And they still decided to come down heavy handed on me. But it's worth mentioning too, Tucker. Part of the process here with me turning all of this over and cooperating, my attorney and my understanding was that they weren't going to press for jail time. That was the mutual understanding that we had here. And then they tried to hit me with 120 days. And I'm not curious if that didn't come from the minds of the U.S. attorneys, but perhaps someone higher up at the DOJ. I might even believe it's at the very top of the DOJ. Maybe Merrick Garland is the one who's trying to put me behind bars and make an example out of me.

Tucker [00:12:46] Yeah, you can trust the Mafia more than you can trust the Justice Department. And I wish that weren't true, but it absolutely is true. So what was prison like?

Owen Shroyer [00:12:57] Well, I will tell you, I think and this is kind of not something I would expected to have said in this interview, but it's just true. I think God wanted me to experience this for multiple reasons, Tucker. I'm a big believer in God, and I think everything that happens in our life is for a reason. And I believe God wanted me to go through this experience because not just the obvious example of speech imprisonment that I had to face, or a speech crime that is now potentially a precedent that could be used against any journalist, which puts fear in my heart, not just for me in the present day, but for future Americans, that they have to be afraid to speak and to do work, honest work as a journalist. But, you know, there was an unexpected issue that was clearly shown to me through this process, and that's that the Justice Department and the incentive behind imprisonment is wrong.

[00:13:55] I mean, I can tell you the details of my stay, they're pretty much horrific, Tucker. I spent the majority of the time in lockdown. I went right out of solitary confinement into what's called a special housing unit for a phone call I made thanking people for sending me mail. People that were in jail for decades, some of the people that worked inside the prison for decades, when they saw that what's called "a shot" in the prisons, they said, I've never seen anybody get punished for this before. So I got sent to prison as a speech prisoner. And then I got sent to the prison inside the prison for my speech. And, you know, I had a couple off the record conversations with people while I was in there. And basically they were saying the same thing, like, look Owen, we don't like what's been done to you here, but these are orders coming from the very top. Your beef isn't with us here at this prison. Your beef is with the people at the top. They're the ones still coming after you, even when you're in here. And I'll leave it at that. So nobody's ever heard of a misdemeanor in a� federal prison until me. Nobody's ever heard of somebody going to the special housing unit for making a phone call, thanking people for mail until me. And so I don't know why they want to make an example of me so much, except that I just speak the truth and I'll say it right to their face if I'm given the opportunity. But we need prison reform in this country badly, Tucker. Most of the people that are in that prison, not just me, do not belong there. And there are way more political prisoners outside the realm of what you and I might think. You go after corrupt lawyers, judges, insurance companies. You go after the corruption in Medicare and Medicaid. They lock you up and throw away the key. I couldn't believe some of the stories. And while I'm in there, the Bureau of Prisons wants $2 billion. Matt Gaetz brought my name up during that hearing. The Bureau of Prisons doesn't need $2 billion more annually. They need to release $2 billion worth of prisoners because we have a prison industrial complex in this country. And we have a Justice Department that is not incentivized by justice.

Tucker [00:15:59] Right. So the violent criminals stay on the street to act as militia for the ruling class and put the fear of God in everybody else, weaken the population. And the thought criminals, or the ones who challenge power, wind up in prison. I've noticed.

Owen Shroyer [00:16:18] Well, and I think this is something that I hate to talk about, but it's just true. And people need to know this. Now, I'm a man of convictions and I guess I would think of myself as a brave man. But telling the truth shouldn't really consist of an act of bravery. But I have to be honest with you, Tucker. Just doing this interview. The book that I wrote while I was in there, I'm afraid now. I'm afraid that my speech is going to wind me up in jail again. That's something that sits in the back of my head now. Every day when I go on air and tell the truth, that's something that sits in the back of my head that I might go to jail for what I'm saying.

Tucker [00:16:56] What's solitary like?

Owen Shroyer [00:17:01] You know, my situation probably wasn't the worst as many people in solitary have where you get no interaction whatsoever. Luckily, some of the inmates that were in general population were able to at least sometimes come up to my window. But for the first 25 days, so almost the first month of my incarceration, I only got movement three days a week. Monday, Wednesday and Friday, I got 15 minutes to shower and that was it. I didn't even get access to commissary until day 35, I believe, which means I was forced to eat the prison food, which many prisoners don't eat at all because it's so bad and they just eat the commissary food. You get very little interaction. You get very little access to the outside. I was treated like a high security prisoner for a misdemeanor. And like I said, nobody could even believe that that was the case, whether it was long time prison workers or long time inmates. And so unceremoniously, I kind of got the nickname Misdemeanor because that was the big joke that somehow I'm in federal prison for a misdemeanor and nobody's ever heard of that. But, you know, that's the thing. You don't want to end up in prison. I mean, I don't have to sit here and explain why you lose all your freedoms. You have to eat unhealthy food. You're pretty much sleep deprived and starved the entire time. But now that's something that sits in the back of my head every time I speak. Doing this interview. Doing my show every day. I'm on air for three hours a day telling the truth. And every hour, I have to sit there and wonder, am I going to go to jail for something I said on my show? That's what they've done to me. And I'm afraid for future Americans that might have to face that same fear.

Tucker [00:18:50] I mean, at some point, I think some people are going to say, I'm actually just not going to go to prison. Like, make me. I hope it doesn't get to that. But you could see that happening. Maybe putting you in prison, in federal prison on a misdemeanor charge for doing nothing. Maybe the whole point of that exercise, because you're a public figure, was to put the fear of God into everybody else and to get them to pause before they tell the truth.

Owen Shroyer [00:19:14] Well, and it's just, the torture is beyond this. I've been under the scrutiny of the federal government since 2019, and all I've ever done is speak. That's all I've ever done. I've never hurt anybody. As far as I'm concerned. I've never broken any law. All I've done is speak. But because I speak against corruption in government and I speak against the corruption in the establishment, I am under the full scrutiny of the federal government. And, you know, people always make the joke, Tucker, but there's a bit of reality to it. I guess I should have just joined one of the leftist mobs and attacked police officers, defaced public property, tried to burn down a building, firebombed a police officer. I guess I probably wouldn't be in this situation right now.

Tucker [00:19:57] Of course not. Torch Wendy's. You'd be completely fine. So last question, sort of bigger picture, picture question. I think your case is one of the most shocking, but it's not unique. There are a lot of people who went to prison for no crime after January 6th, which was obviously a setup. But the basis of the demonstration and of the conversation since has been the question of the 2020 election. Was it stolen? And do you think that any of this stuff, putting you in jail, pretending it was insurrection. Any of that. Has that convinced a single person in this country or abroad that the election wasn't stolen? I mean, you think that's actually worked as a propaganda tool?

Owen Shroyer [00:20:40] Well, it's funny because in their sentencing memo, they said I wasn't remorseful for questioning it. Like I'm some, I guess I'm supposed to grovel to Joe Biden and the Department of Justice. Yeah, I'm not remorseful. But here's the thing, Tucker. They can put me in jail for a month, two months, a year, 12 years. It's not going to change the facts. It's not going to change the facts that Donald Trump was getting 40, 50,000 people at every rally. He did, sometimes 3 or 4 a day. And Joe Biden couldn't fill a broom closet. It's not going to change the fact that the recent joke Trump made, which I think is funny, Donald Trump sells millions of hats. I've never seen or heard of a Joe Biden hat. It's not going to change the fact that was well documented in the documentary 3000 Mules that these vote-by-mail drop boxes were filled with all kinds of corruption. And it's not going to change the fact that Donald Trump was leading in Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, Georgia, all the way through the night until 3 a.m., Michigan, and then at 3:00 and 3:30 a.m., all the sudden, hundreds of thousands of votes for Joe Biden came in just enough to put him over the edge. So they can throw me in jail forever. It's not going to change that history. And I always like to make this analogy, Tucker, because I think it's a fair analogy. I'm sure you recall the great homerun chase of 1998 when Mark McGwire and Sammy Sosa both broke the home run record. Well, that's an anomaly. So we found out what was behind it. They were both using steroids. Or, as some people said, they were both cheating. Well, here's the thing. We just had a presidential election where both candidates broke the record. Do you really think that's organic? And do you really believe that Joe Biden got more votes than Barack Obama? Anybody who really believes that I think is lying to themselves and lying to anybody else.

Tucker [00:22:30] A lot more than Barack Obama. Yeah, Joe Biden beat Black Jesus. Yeah, I agree. I agree with you 100%. Owen Shroyer, it is great to see you. I'm sure you're rattled, but you're obviously not broken. And so we're grateful that you took the time to talk to us. Thank you very much.

Owen Shroyer [00:22:47] Absolutely, great to be here. And congratulations on your new network, Tucker. We're all cheering for you.

Tucker [00:22:53] Thanks, man.