Episode 139 LIVE: Uncaged (feat. Owen Shroyer) – Firebrand with Matt Gaetz
Summary
Owen Shroyer was at the capitol on Jan. 6th, 2020 when he was subject to federal criminal prosecution and imprisonment. In this episode, we discuss the events that transpired that day, the circumstances that led to his arrest, and the process that resulted in his incarceration.
Transcript
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matt gates the biggest firebrand inside of the house of representatives you're not taking matt
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gates off the board okay because matt gates is an american patriot and matt gates is an american
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hero we will not continue to allow the uniparty to run this town without a fight i want to thank
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you matt gates for holding the line matt gates is a courageous man if we had hundreds of matt gates
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in dc the country turns around it's that simple he's so tough he's so strong he's smart and he
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loves this country matt gates it is the honor of my life to fight alongside each and every one of you
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we will save america it's choose your fighter time send in the firebrands
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owen schroyer was at the capitol on january 6th he was uh subject to federal criminal prosecution
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and imprisonment as we have talked about many of the civil rights issues that january 6th
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defendants have faced whether it's been access to counsel or treatment during incarceration
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many of you have asked questions about how owen's doing and what his conditions are
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he's out now and so i welcome him to the podcast and owen i want to get into this full experience
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you had but maybe first just for people who don't know you and your story explain why you came to
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the capitol on january 6th and what your goals were that day sure and the individuals responsible for my
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incarceration know that what i'm about to tell you is a hundred percent true because they've had
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complete and unfettered access to all electronic data that they have requested included including
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multiple cell phones so as many people may or may not be aware of now there was a procedure on january
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6th where members of congress and the vice president at the time mike pence can take a second to review
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the election process the electoral process and take a pause to see if all laws were followed before
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certifying the election of joe biden and we were there that day to support that legal and lawful
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process which by the way has been done before or in america's history by democrats multiple times even
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by democrats so i was there as a journalist covering that proceeding in support of it hoping that we
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could review some of the laws some of the changes of the laws and some of the process that went down in
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the electoral process that winded up electing joe biden and i don't know maybe getting a question
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answered like how donald trump was leading in five states at three o'clock in the morning of election
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night and then joe biden won those states at 3 30 but perhaps that's another issue for another time so
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that's what i was there doing that day that we see that pattern play out right where you get a lot of early
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returns from some of the precincts with lower vote totals and then at the very end it's it's almost
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like you see ballots willed into existence uh in some of these jurisdictions that don't have the the type
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of tight ballot custody chain of custody and transparency regarding votes cast and and you know
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the you you really drew a fine point on this fact that people have made these arguments and offered
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these contests to electors quite frequently and not just in in distant history but in recent history
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the last republican to be elected president in the absence of some democrat objection to electors
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was george herbert walker bush so you show up as a journalist you show up as someone interested in
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that process uh and and when did you first become aware that that what you were doing there was going
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to have consequence in the federal criminal realm well and let me just get one thing clear before i
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answer that question as well i never went into the capitol i never touched a police officer or any other
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law enforcement agent and i'm on record trying to stop people from going into the capitol and trying to
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work with capitol police to try to stop the entire thing from happening so i just want to make sure
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that that point is clarified here now as far as when did i realize that i was going to be continued uh
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to be persecuted by the department of justice and i say continued to be criminally persecuted because
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this actually started in 2019 and you may or may not be aware that when jerry nadler was holding a sham
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impeachment hearing of donald trump i stood up during the hearing and i said donald trump is
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innocent it's the democrats are the real criminals the cops escorted me out of the building as i'm sure
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you're aware this happens all the time in the capitol this happens all the time in congressional
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hearings the one difference might be that i'm actually a conservative usually it's liberals and
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democrats that do this and they just get detained for a minute escorted out of the building and that's
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it and that's what was going to happen to me but somebody got on the capitol police's walkie-talkie
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and said no you're not going to release oensroyer you're going to arrest him and charge him and so
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i've been dealing with this since 2019 now there's also other false reports out there that i violated
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a standard of my probation i didn't there are false reports out there that even the prosecuting
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attorneys tried to argue to the judge inaccurately that i didn't complete my community service i did but
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because of everything being shut down for covid they could never clear and complete and get this
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case off of the docket but as far as myself and my legal counsel were concerned this was all done
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it was all a done deal we were just waiting for all the covid stuff to get the courts back open
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and then one day my lawyer inquires to the department of justice saying hey when are we going to get this
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case off the docket it's been months now my client has finished his probation he's completed his
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community service why isn't this off the docket and then to his suspicion they said oh we can't clear
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this off the docket there might be something else going on now this was in the early summer of 2021
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and then late in the summer in august of 2021 i received an indictment from the fbi for my arrest
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for four completely bogus charges related to january 6th and then an allegation that i violated
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my probation which they argue i did but we never got to defend that i didn't i would argue that i
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didn't violate my probation and i think it's very clear in the wording in my probation that i did not
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violate but again these are just false reports that we get from our corrupt department of justice
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i think it's workers and the mainstream media there are a lot of people who uh were at the capital
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grounds on january 6th who didn't go inside but um you know were there because they wanted to observe
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this process some like you wanted to record it in some way for uh journalistic purposes some wanted
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to have their voice heard that they didn't believe that the uh the electors were properly certified and
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they wanted the the benefit of these objections to to prevail in the legally contemplated constitutional
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system uh that you described and so really it must have been crazy when you then get the news that
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this is going to result in this really enhanced um federal application of criminal law against you
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as we have observed some of these cases we see prosecutors trying to overcharge or get even more
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draconian punishment that you would ever anticipate associated with these types of charges uh you
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know is that something that having gone through this process you think that we ought to investigate
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and is it is it something you've observed this is actually a very important point that you bring up
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here matt because we are now aware of this and if there is a silver lining in my case and and maybe
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some of the other uh january 6th defendants that have just been completely abused by this department of
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justice perhaps this is the silver lining what i've realized here is there is no incentive for
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justice in the department of justice the incentive from prosecuting attorneys and u.s attorneys is
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convictions and the incentive from the judge is prison time you notice i didn't say justice so what
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happens is the u.s attorneys and the prosecuting attorneys they will vastly overcharge you six seven
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charges many of which are just completely ludicrous but they'll wildly overcharge you at the hopes or
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the assumption that you're gonna take a plea bargain and most people do who can trust a jury of their
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non-peers because this isn't a jury of your peers uh this isn't a jury of people that know you or live in
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your area or work in the same field as you i would have been in a jury in dc i would have had no chance
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that's not my peers so you don't really get a jury of your peers and you basically get oh are you going
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to be facing six seven charges that could completely destroy your life or do you want to plea to the one
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charge that might be like a slap on the risk and then you hope you can get back to some semblance
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of your normal well hold on let me interrupt you there because i think this is this is where the
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pardon power is really going to be important because you had so many people who were confronting
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this avalanche of charges that you would normally never see applied to a circumstance like this
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and then people fearing really long incarceration periods would plead to something for a diminished
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sentence or a diminished consequence and now that that is something that people are carrying with them
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and and i want to get to you know how you think a lot of folks might have been used as political pawns
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then but i think that the only way to remediate the dynamic you're talking about the power dynamic
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where people pled guilty who never in their hearts believed they intended to commit a crime and certainly
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didn't want to violate federal criminal law those people need need to be remediated and restored and
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and i think that the pardon power could be used effectively by by the next president to restore those folks
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and vivek ramaswamy as far as i know is the only candidate that has promised to do so i think maybe
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donald trump has alluded to uh that idea i don't know if he has specifically said in so many words but
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the reason why i talk about this now and and we're aware of it now is because of the blatant political
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persecution that's been going down in what i think should be described as the democrats reich tag moment
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like the nazis burned the reich tag to blame on their enemies well the democrats either let january
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6 happen or who knows maybe they had the provocateurs in there uh to get it to happen and then they use
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that to destroy their political opposition and ultimately they they'd like to use that to destroy
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donald trump and everybody else is kind of really as like a never let a crisis go to waste moment for
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them where like people who had no one no mens rea to commit a crime had to be overcharged had to be
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incarcerated because those people then became a symbol to others of danger and malcontent and
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terrorism i can't believe we're applying those terms to like maga grandmothers who crossed over a
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barricade that was ripped down hours before by a capital police officer but that seems to be the case
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like you know do is it your experience because i know you've communicated with others who've been in
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these in these circumstances that people understand that their case is potentially part of a a broader
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mosaic of democrats and the political left and the mainstream media to try to scare americans and to
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try to make people think that anyone who is associated with the maga movement or for second amendment rights or
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who wants to build a wall or have paper ballots is some sort of extremist
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well let me just tell you from my experience what it feels like
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as a journalist as a talk show host i now have this looming cloud over my head in the back of my mind
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with everything i say i mean just coming on your show and talking to you i can't help it it's like an
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involuntary muscle movement maybe call it an involuntary thought process of self-preservation
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am i going to get arrested am i going to get imprisoned am i going to get thrown in jail for
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speaking to matt gates am i going to get thrown in jail for telling matt gates and telling the world
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my story this is something that i can't shake since i've gotten out of prison now maybe with time if i go
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a month or a year or five without the democrats throwing me back in jail maybe i can finally shake it but
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that's what it feels like now i'm i have to live with this now in the back of my mind that just for
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speaking and doing my journalistic duties that i'm going to end up in prison and while this hurts me
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i can't even imagine the next generation of americans living like this this is what it's like in north
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korea this is what it's like in china where people are afraid to speak is this what the next generation
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of americans is that gonna have to grow up with in the back of their mind to me that just breaks my heart
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and you know again i think it's worth mentioning here because i i witnessed this not only do the
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people that are in there defending their political views realize that they're part of a larger
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picture of the democrat party trying to oust their political opposition by making examples of the
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people they're throwing in jail on a much more broader scale and scope this is what the department
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of justice does to everyone matt whether they're facing charges for one thing or the other this is what
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they do to everybody you know when you spoke at the bop hearing uh with uh miss peters you know
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they're asking for two billion dollars and and you know i can understand where they're coming from they
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do have a problem with employment they do have a problem with staff and they do have a problem with
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their facilities i had to shower in showers that had black mold all over them but here's the thing
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you and i both know that they could get two billion dollars they could get 20 billion dollars
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and nothing is going to improve in this system what needs to happen if they were serious what needs
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to happen is they need to find out what a prisoner costs annually equate that to two billion dollars
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and release that many people back to their families because most people got railroaded by this
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department of justice because justice is not their incentive it's convictions and incarceration
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and i learned this firsthand and and what would be your message to those who are still you know
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carrying the weight of that uh with their own freedom being surrendered i think about the vigils that
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are held outside the dc gulag on a nightly basis and the and the people there who who tragically are
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just trying to have a minute or a moment on the phone to believe that something better is going to
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emerge from all this what what can you say to them you know it's it's really hard to say anything
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because my sentence was mere inches compared to the miles of wrongful convictions that people like
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enrique tario or joe biggs or many others are facing there's really not much to say other than
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i would just like the american people to know that the one thing that helped me get through it in the
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worst times when i was thrown into the hole and disappeared in fact i was a i was in jail for
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being a speech crime and then i got thrown inside the jail in the jail for speaking too
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i can elaborate on that further if you would like but you know what they need to know is that people
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on the outside still care about them the letters that i received the books that i received was some
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of the most meaningful things that helped me get through some of the worst times when i was in solitary
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in there and they just need to know that people haven't forgotten about them they need to know that
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the american people's hearts and minds are still with them because i mean really it's dark it's tough
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in there it's psychologically damaging it's physically damaging and i've seen firsthand how people that
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have long time deal with it and and there's highs and there's lows and there's good times and there's
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mostly bad times but there's really nothing you can say to a man whose life has been stolen from him
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there's really nothing you can say or do to a man who has been thrown in jail as a political
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prisoner by the democrat party there really isn't but what you can do to maybe make it a little easier
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is to just let them know you care you know there's some projects out there i got some mail from them
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like the patriot mail project and others where just getting a letter just getting a letter from the
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outside telling you that hey we're praying for you we haven't forgotten about you you know americans
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are out here still thinking about you we're still trying to get your stories in front of congress so
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that people can know what's going on i mean just that helps you get through the day just putting 20
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bucks into their commissary fund so they can buy something at the store that isn't prison slop to eat
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get a shirt that isn't a gift from the bop that comes with sweat stains or or or underwear that comes
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with poop stains uh just little stuff like that can help their time a little easier uh go by and but
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i mean there's really nothing you can say to a man who's had his life ripped away and thrown in a hole
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wrongfully there's really not much you can say but there's some actions you can take to maybe at least
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make it a little easier on them while they're down undeniably we need to take more action as
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republican leaders to see that the violations of civil rights are remediated to the extent that you can
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at this stage of the game and this is time that a lot of people aren't going to get back
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in the event that i mean you know you mentioned enrique tario wasn't in washington dc and has some
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like multi-decade sentence i it's it's a it's really something that appears more um like what
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you'd see in an orwellian novel uh than what you'd observe in a free country oh and how can people
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follow follow your journalism and your work as you continue to offer commentary and analysis on
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on what's facing the country well i appreciate that and let me just make one more point before i do
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when they when the fbi indicted me there was a magistrate judge judge faruki who issued a motion
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to the department of justice saying hey wait a second you've just illegally charged a journalist
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and matt i'm sure you're aware of this but barack obama wrote special standards and procedures
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for charging a journalist there's different hoops and things you have to do when you charge a
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journalist they didn't do any of them and when this magistrate judge said hey wait a second you
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just broke the law doing this they just they just threw it away they just didn't even care they
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completely ignored it even though everybody knows i'm a journalist now thankfully because i'm one of
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i have been one of the most censored men in america censored on all the mainstream social medias
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youtube facebook twitter instagram everything else uh why because i'm a conservative that tells the
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truth but thankfully now that elon musk has take over taken over x i'm back on x i've got my political
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media account at owensroyer 1776 i got my personal account back at all i do is owen but you can follow
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my show and what's amazing about this because i mean in a way it's an honor that the democrats are so
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afraid of me that they throw me in jail for my speech but in the 30 page sentencing memo they took
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speech from my talk show which is the info wars war room and because we get banned everywhere you have
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to go to band.video slash war room to find it i'm on 3 to 6 p.m central times they 30 pages and they're
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in almost the entire memo was things i said on my show nothing to do about january 6 they quoted me
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calling joe biden a chinese communist puppet and they put that in my sentencing memo calling it
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relevant conduct so apparently my show is so dangerous to the democrat party that they use it
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in sentencing memos against me to throw me in jail so in a way i'm honored but like i said that that
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thought is always there in the back of my head like an itch i can't scratch every day i go on air
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are they going to throw me in jail for going on air today are they going to throw me in jail because
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today i said that there's a biden crime family that needs to have this impeachment inquiry
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going forward which thank god the good republicans in the house made move forward but that's where
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you can find me you can find me on x you can find me at band.video you can also find me on rumble.com
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slash owen so really the response here matt has to be like what you've done and with your podcast
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firebrand and even when you were going through uh all the the swords and arrows coming after you for
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ousting kevin mccarthy which i think you did the right thing in times like this we have to take the
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bold steps and at times like this where people are trying to minimize you you have to become a
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maximalist no you're absolutely right every one of us has a node of power that we can influence in
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american politics and what the left is trying to do is they are trying to erode that diminish that to
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the greatest extent possible and i think that using people as pawns as part of this grand january 6th
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narrative is a really dangerous feature of that but we see features of it from the censorship to
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the demonetizing to the de-platforming and you're right the only way it works is that we band together
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and that we become maximalists and they're more of us than there are of them and i think they know it
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and i think that's what frightens them the most owen there were so many people that were concerned
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about you uh they were watching this podcast and many others uh and so many folks are glad to see
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that you're free now and while it is a terrible thing that you had to go through and it it seems
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to be kind of littered with retaliation and retribution that is tied to constitutionally
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protected expression you'll wonder you know like does god put us through these trials and tribulations
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so that we can be maximalists so that we can go beyond it and help others and uh certainly with
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the slings and arrows i've taken i firmly believe that builds our calluses so that we're even more
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prepared for the next fight and i know you will be so i'll give you the last word but thanks so much
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for joining me on fireman man i completely agree with that i can't express my gratitude for all the
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care and concern and prayers for me while i was in i will promise those people in your audience that
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i'm never going to give up in the good fight and uh i won't speak for you matt but i know that i'm sure
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you feel the same way as we're both fighting for the future of not just the united states of america but
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really i see it as human freedom of existence on this planet amen amen thanks for joining us owen give
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this guy a follow and thanks for joining us on firebrand appreciate it man
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and thanks for joining us on firebrand appreciate it man