A former video editor for the conspiracy theory-laden website Infowars was sentenced to four months of home detention Wednesday for joining in with the mob during the deadly January 6, 2021 insurrection upon the U.S. Capitol.
Samuel Montoya captured video footage of a police officer fatally shooting rioter Ashli Babbitt as she was climbing through a broken hallway window that led to the lobby into the office of then-Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA).
Before a judge announced his sentence, Montoya called himself “a member of the media” and said he regrets his “approach to filming and reporting on the events that day.”
“Nothing like what happened at the Capitol that day should ever take place again,” Montoya said. “I truly hope my apology offers a bit of closure to my fellow countrymen as we recover and heal together.”
But U.S. District Judge John Bates said that Montoya “doesn’t get a free pass” just because he “considered himself a journalist” and stated that Montoya was more than just a reporter or observer. Rather, the judge said, “He was a participant.”
In video taken during the riot, Montoya can be seen making statements celebrating the mob’s attack.
This past November, Montoya pleaded guilty to one count of misdemeanor parading, demonstrating or picketing in a Capitol building, which is punishable up to six months in prison.
During Montoya’s trial, prosecutors asserted that Infowars founder and host Alex Jones claimed he told Montoya to stay in his home state of Texas to work on the site while Jones and others went to DC for then-President Trump’s “Stop the Steal” rally on January 6.
Jones used Infowars to promote Trump’s baseless claims of 2020 election fraud, but Jones himself has not been charged with any January 6-related crimes.
So far, prosecutors have brought criminal charges against more than 1,000 people following the January 6 assault on the U.S. Capitol. Four people died during the insurrection, including Babbitt, and five police officers died of various causes following the attack.
