Stay up to date with notifications from The Independent

Notifications can be managed in browser preferences.

Trump impeachment hearing: Pro-Trump Infowars host who called for Obama to be lynched thrown out of inquiry

Host has pushed debunked conspiracy theories to smear Democrats

Clark Mindock
New York
Monday 09 December 2019 15:15 GMT
Comments
Pro-Trump protester disrupts impeachment hearing

Your support helps us to tell the story

This election is still a dead heat, according to most polls. In a fight with such wafer-thin margins, we need reporters on the ground talking to the people Trump and Harris are courting. Your support allows us to keep sending journalists to the story.

The Independent is trusted by 27 million Americans from across the entire political spectrum every month. Unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock you out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. But quality journalism must still be paid for.

Help us keep bring these critical stories to light. Your support makes all the difference.

A host on the far-right US conspiracy and disinformation website InfoWars has been removed from the latest impeachment hearing by police, after interrupting House Judiciary Committee chairman Jerry Nadler with pro-Donald Trump messages.

The interruption came from a host on the fringe conservative website who led a racist call earlier this year for the lynching of Barack Obama, America's first African American president.

The host was seen being led out by Capitol Police after the interruption on Monday, shortly after the start of the hearings in which politicians are to question the counsels hired by the House Intelligence Committee to spearhead questioning during earlier impeachment hearings.

"Americans are sick of your impeachment scam! Trump is innocent!" said the protester, Owen Shroyer.

Mr Shroyer had attracted attention to himself earlier this year with a racist call to lynch Mr Obama, whom he called "treasonous" during an interview with the far-right website Breitbart. He cited a conspiracy theory that has been pushed with no evidence by far-right actors as proof of the former president's alleged misdeeds.

"Folks, Obama was emailing Hillary Clinton on her illegal server under a secret name, that came out in emails. And he claimed he didn't know she had it. Barack Obama is a treasonous ... he belongs in jail. He belongs in Guantanamo Bay. I mean look, I'm not saying this should happen but Barack Obama, you know, find the tallest tree and a rope."

Mr Shroyer's disruption was live streamed by the conspiracy theorist on Twitter, and posted onto his own handle.

Previously, he has pushed conspiracy theories like Pizzagate, a debunked theory that went viral during the 2016 election season claiming that falsely claimed that top Democratic officials were running a child sex ring in the basement of Comet Ping Pong, a pizza parlour in Washington.

The building does not have a basement, but the conspiracy theory resulted in one individual driving to the restaurant with a gun, planning to liberate the victims that did not exist.

But, Mr Shroyer has also peddled further conspiracy theories, some of them even more bizarre than a concentrated effort by America's top Democrats to hide a child sex trafficking ring in a pizza shop.

Among those other conspiracy theories include the 2012 claim that a hurricane headed towards Hawaii had been split in two by an energy beam from Antarctica, which he suggested may have been ordered by then-secretary of State John Kerry.

Join our commenting forum

Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies

Comments

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged inPlease refresh your browser to be logged in