Infowars host pleads guilty to Jan. 6 charge
WASHINGTON — Infowars host Owen Shroyer, who promoted baseless claims of 2020 election fraud on the far-right Internet platform, pleaded guilty on Friday to joining the mob of Donald Trump supporters who rioted at the US Capitol.
Shroyer, who didn’t enter the Capitol but led rioters in chants near the top of the building’s steps, pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor charge of illegally entering a restricted area. The charge carries a maximum sentence of one year behind bars.
US District Judge Timothy Kelly scheduled a Sept. 12 sentencing hearing for the 33-year-old Shroyer, who has hosted a daily show called “The War Room With Owen Shroyer” for the website operated by conspiracy theorist Alex Jones.
Outside the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, Shroyer stood in front of a crowd with a megaphone and yelled that Democrats are “tyrants.”
“And so today, on January 6, we declare death to tyranny! Death to tyrants!” he shouted.
Near the top of steps on the Capitol’s east side, Shroyer, who’s from Austin, Texas, led hundreds of rioters in chants of “USA!” and “1776!” He later said in an affidavit that he stood with Jones as Jones tried to deescalate the situation.
But, prosecutors wrote in a court filing, “Harkening to the last time Americans overthrew their government in a revolution while standing on the Capitol steps where elected representatives are certifying a Presidential Election you disagree with does not qualify as deescalation.”
Associated Press
Few celebrities at Modi’s White House dinner
The guest list for Thursday night’s state dinner honoring Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi was full of distinguished names and titans of industry, and almost no one fun.
State dinners usually have a healthy mix of Washington and Hollywood, inviting celebrities with ties to the honored country. So you’d expect to see celebrities like Mindy Kaling, Kal Penn, Priyanka Chopra Jonas, and Padma Lakshmi walking through the photographer gantlet at the White House. But the guest list was decidedly low-wattage: The most recognizable name (other than tennis legend Billie Jean King) was director M. Night Shyamalan, and the most recognizable Hollywood face was Maulik Pancholy, who played beleaguered assistant Jonathan on “30 Rock.”
Perhaps Modi is too controversial a leader for celebrities to clink glasses with? Or maybe it was to signal that this dinner was about serious diplomacy, as India’s profile rises on the world stage: newly the most-populated nation on Earth, the largest democracy and a potential bulwark against China. Whatever the reason, it made for a state dinner that was all business and no play; tables with hundreds of tiny candles but no lightness. The people who complain that frivolities are a waste of taxpayer money got their money’s worth, this time.
The turnout was better from Silicon Valley. Apple CEO Tim Cook flashed a peace sign as he breezed past the photo scrum. Other guests included Anne Wojcicki, the cofounder and CEO of 23andMe; Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella; Alphabet (so, Google) CEO Sundar Pichai; and Hemant Taneja, CEO and managing director at the venture capital firm General Catalyst. Indian American lawmakers included Representatives Pramila Jayapal, Democrat of Washington; Ami Bera, Democrat of California; Raja Krishnamoorthi, Democrat of Illinois; and Shri Thanedar, Democrat of Michigan.
Asked about the prime minister’s remarks to Congress earlier that day, Representative Ro Khanna, Democrat of California, flanked by his wife, said he “thought it was very good that [Modi] talked about celebrating all faiths.”
Washington Post
How much does it cost to keep Trump quiet?
How much money must E. Jean Carroll win to stop Donald Trump from talking about her?
A Manhattan jury last month ordered the former president to pay $3 million in damages for defaming Carroll when he said her accusation that he had raped her decades earlier was a lie. The next day, Trump appeared on CNN, and again accused Carroll of making up her story and for good measure called her a “wack job.”
Now, Carroll is seeking millions of dollars more to stop the river of invective.
Forbes magazine says Trump is worth $2.5 billion, but his actual wealth is in much dispute — he has said his net worth fluctuates with his mood. As he seeks the presidency again, he has used his legal troubles, which include state and federal indictments, to raise money by tearing into prosecutors and plaintiffs.
Trump became a celebrity and then the nation’s chief executive largely through the power of an untrammeled tongue, creating fascination even among opponents with his unpredictable and cruel verbal assaults. He is also famous for his love of money, bragging about his fortune and flaunting its gilded prizes.
Carroll and her lawyers are trying to win a jury award that would bring his competing desires into economic equilibrium. But is there any amount of money that could persuade the former president to keep her name out of his mouth?
Carroll’s complaint will be heard as part of a trial scheduled for January, stemming from verbal assaults he made against her in 2019. Carroll has said she lost her job as an advice columnist for Elle magazine after those attacks and is seeking at least $10 million in compensatory damages for harm to her reputation. After Trump’s recent CNN diatribe, she said she also wanted “a very substantial punitive damages award” that would “deter him from engaging in further defamation.”
Carroll’s lawyer, Roberta A. Kaplan, said it was hard to put a number on that deterrence without knowing more about Trump’s financial position.
“What I do know is that Donald Trump cares a lot about money,” Kaplan said. “And here, the prospect that he could have to pay millions of dollars in punitive damages each time he defames E. Jean Carroll again has to weigh on his mind.”
New York Times
GOP official in Ariz. sues failed candidate Lake
PHOENIX — A top Republican election official in Arizona filed a defamation lawsuit Thursday against Kari Lake, who falsely claims she lost the 2022 race for governor because of fraud.
Maricopa County Recorder Stephen Richer said he’s faced “violent vitriol and other dire consequences” because of lies spread by Lake, including death threats and the loss of friendships.
“Rather than accept political defeat, rather than get a new job, she has sought to undermine confidence in our elections and has mobilized millions of her followers against me,” Richer wrote in an op-ed in The Arizona Republic.
Lake is a former Phoenix television news anchor who quickly built an enthusiastic political following as a loyal supporter of former President Donald Trump and his lie that the 2020 election was stolen from him. She went on to narrowly lose her own race for Arizona governor last year along with a lawsuit challenging the results.
Despite her losses in court, she continues to claim that Richer and other Maricopa County officials interfered in the election to prevent her from winning.
A spokesperson for Lake did not immediately respond to a request for comment. She is openly considering a run for US Senate and is a leading contender to be Trump’s running mate in his 2024 presidential campaign.
Associated Press
