Alex Jones

An attorney for the parents of a child killed in the Sandy Hook massacre showed a jury video on Wednesday of U.S. conspiracy theorist Alex Jones telling his ...

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The Infowars conspiracy theorist was presented with text messages from his own cellphone showing that he had withheld evidence in defamation lawsuits ...

Mr. Bankston, a lawyer for the Sandy Hook parents Scarlett Lewis and Neil Heslin, also revealed new evidence of Mr. Jones’s failure to produce court-ordered documents related to lies he spread about the mass shooting and its victims. In fact, his losses by default resulted from his failure to produce those materials. In another broadcast, Infowars falsely linked the judge to pedophilia; in another, Mr. Jones questioned the intelligence of the jurors in the case, implying that his political enemies had handpicked “blue-collar” people who were ill-equipped to decide what monetary damages he must pay Ms. Lewis and Mr. Heslin. In written questions submitted to Mr. Jones, jurors took immediate issue with that. In testimony on Tuesday and Wednesday morning, Mr. Jones continued to insist that he had complied with court orders to produce documents and testimony in the run-up to the defamation trials. Mr. Bankston also produced clips from Mr. Jones’s Infowars broadcast in which he aired a copy of a photograph of the judge in Ms. Lewis’s and Mr. Heslin’s case, Maya Guerra Gamble, engulfed in flames. The judge admonished Mr. Jones and his lawyer, F. Andino Reynal, after the Infowars fabulist lied about the matter under oath on Tuesday. The judge also chastised Mr. Jones for telling the jury that he was bankrupt when his bankruptcy filing last week had yet to be adjudicated; the families’ lawyers said it was his latest attempt to delay the upcoming damages trials. He also presented financial records that contradicted Mr. Jones’s claim that he was bankrupt and clips from his broadcasts maligning the judge and jury in the case. Mr. Jones lost those cases by default, after nearly four years of litigation in which he failed to produce documents and testimony ordered by courts in Texas and Connecticut. That set in motion three trials for damages; the one in Austin this week is the first. The text messages were significant because Mr. Jones had claimed for years that he had searched his phone for texts about the Sandy Hook cases and found none. AUSTIN, Texas — In a brutal cross-examination on Wednesday in the trial of the conspiracy theorist Alex Jones, a lawyer for Sandy Hook parents produced text messages from Mr. Jones’s cellphone showing that he had withheld key evidence in defamation lawsuits brought by the families for lies he had spread about the 2012 school shooting. The messages, which were apparently sent in error to the families’ lawyers by Mr. Jones’s counsel, revealed that he was also warned about posting a false report about the coronavirus by a staff member calling the potential fabrication “another Sandy Hook.” The Infowars conspiracy theorist was presented with text messages from his own cellphone showing that he had withheld evidence in defamation lawsuits brought by Sandy Hook families.

The dishonesty of right-wing conspiracy theorist Alex Jones was spotlighted in a Texas court on Wednesday as a lawyer for a pair of Sandy Hook parents ...

It seems absurd to instruct you again that you must tell the truth while you testify. And Gamble on Tuesday had also admonished Jones for having violated his oath to tell the truth twice. "You are already under oath to tell the truth," Gamble said Tuesday. "You've already violated that oath twice today, in just those two examples. When reminded Jones had testified under oath that he had searched his phone during the discovery phase of the trial and could not locate messages about Sandy Hook, Jones insisted he "did not lie." In a remarkable moment, Bankston disclosed to Jones and the court that he had recently acquired evidence proving Jones had lied when he claimed during the discovery process that he had never texted about the 2012 Sandy Hook shooting. The cell phone records, Bankston said, showed that Jones had in fact texted about the Sandy Hook shooting.

The past two days of the Jones trial have been wrenching and shocking. Today, the plaintiffs' lawyers revealed in dramatic fashion that Jones's lawyers ...

Jones, who relishes flashy stunts, is used to being the one who gets to make the big, gotcha reveal, but today he was on the other end, unable—under threat of contempt of court—to talk his way out of his lies. Near the end of the day, shortly after Jones contended under oath that he was bankrupt, Gamble tore into Jones for “abusing my tolerance and making asides to the jury.” Whenever Jones attempted to speak, Gamble cut him off. But Jones continued to shove his finger in his mouth in front of the judge. “I can interrupt you; you can’t interrupt me.” When Jones suggested that he and Infowars had complied with the lawsuit’s discovery requests, Gamble shut him down. Throughout the trial, Jones has been at his most exposed when the jury has left the room and he’s been forced to confront the authority of Judge Gamble. Gamble has frequently admonished Jones, the way a parent or principal might scold a misbehaving grade-schooler. Jones is used to commanding the microphone for interminable periods, and from the stand, it almost looked like he was back in his studio and about to tear into a signature four-hour broadcast rant. Opposing counsel argued this was a lie as Jones has only declared bankruptcy and not yet proved it.) At one point during a routine line of questioning, Jones told his lawyer, “You can’t be told about the matrix; you have to see it.” Jones’s attorney responded, “Let’s slow down a little bit.” At one point yesterday, Gamble interrupted Jones’s attorney to ask him to “spit his gum out.” Jones immediately stood up to tell the judge he was instead massaging the hole of a recently pulled tooth. But the witness chair is a powerful tool in exposing Jones for what he really is: a reckless individual caught in a web of his own lies. Upon realizing the gravity of the situation, Jones sat stunned and red-faced, looking on the verge of tears. What exactly might come of this discovery is unclear, but it seems likely that we will continue to learn more about the inner workings of Jones’s conspiracist media empire (one message from the trove disclosed that in 2018, Infowars was making as much as $800,000 a day from its online store). The contents of the phone could be turned over to law enforcement, where the material could be relevant in other pending investigations. The only way to shut up Alex Jones, for a moment, at least, is to place him inside a courtroom.

The legal team representing Infowars founder Alex Jones inadvertently sent the contents of his cellphone to a lawyer representing the parents of a child ...

The editor, Paul Watson, wrote that it “makes us look ridiculous” and added, “Sandy Hook all over again.” Jones texted back, “I get it.” Heslin and Lewis sued in 2018 over the far-right media personality’s relentless false claims that the Sandy Hook school shooting was a “giant hoax.” Jones claimed the numbers were cherry-picked. After Jones’s years-long refusal to comply with court orders and hand over documents and evidence in lawsuits, District Judge Maya Guerra Gamble of Travis County, Tex., in September found Jones responsible for all damages. But, he said, messages on Jones’s phone suggested Infowars brought in as much as $800,000 on some days. I just want to make sure you know before we go any further.”

After years of telling his followers the Sandy Hook school shooting was staged, Jones admitted on the stand that the massacre was real.

Jones said that high figure was a result of his show’s programming about the Conservative Political Action Conference. “He’s made [Heslin and Lewis] live their lives in fear, in fear of being harmed or murdered by people who believed the lies and wanted to do something about it.” Earlier in his testimony, Jones said he had personally searched for “Sandy Hook” in his text messages and had found no messages. Bankston said the contents of Jones’ phone showed that his revenue actually rose. “I personally do not get on the internet and sit there and use email,” Jones said. But Mark Bankston, an attorney for Neil Heslin and Scarlett Lewis, told Jones on Wednesday that Jones’ own attorneys recently accidentally sent them the contents of Jones’ phone from the last two years.

It's 100% real,” Jones admitted Wednesday in court, where he also learned that his lawyers accidentally passed along the contents of his phone to the ...

Which, true or not, would seem to be a fully appropriate punishment. On Tuesday, that judge, Maya Guerra Gamble, took Jones to task for lying under oath, telling him, “This is not your show.” If there’s justice in the world, Alex Jones, the infamous conspiracy theorist on trial for the unconscionable, disgusting lies he spread that the Sandy Hook massacre was a hoax, and that the children and teachers who lost their lives that day weren’t actually killed, will have to pay the full $150 million the families suing him for defamation have asked for.

He says he now understands it was irresponsible of him to declare the massacre a hoax.

Last September, the judge admonished Jones in her default judgment over his failure to turn over documents requested by the Sandy Hook families. The plaintiffs' attorneys were furious about Jones mentioning he is bankrupt, which they worry will taint the jury's decisions about damages. A key segment of the case is a 2017 Infowars broadcast that said Heslin didn't hold his son. Jones said that was the company's best day in sales. At stake in the trial is how much Jones will pay. The jurors will consider damages in two phases. Bankston then went after Jones' credibility, showing an Infowars video clip from last week when a host — not Jones — claimed the trial was rigged and featured a photo of the judge in flames. They are seeking at least $150 million in the trial, which was held to determine how much Jones and his media company, Free Speech Systems, must pay for defaming Heslin and Lewis. Then came another clip of Jones asking if the jury was selected from a group of people "who don't know what planet" they live on. They described how Jesse was known for telling classmates to "run!" which likely saved lives. Jones was the only person who testified in his own defence. In a gripping exchange, Lewis spoke directly to Jones, who was sitting about 10 feet away.

The controversial conspiracy theorist had previously claimed the attack was faked to impose gun restrictions.

Jones was the only witness to testify in his defence. “The day Sandy Hook happened, Alex Jones planted a seed of misinformation that lasted a decade,” parents’ attorney Kyle Farrar told the jury in closing arguments. Jones has already tried to protect Free Speech Systems financially. Jurors began considering damages Wednesday. Once they determine whether Jones should pay the parents compensation for defamation and emotional distress, it must then decide if he must also pay punitive damages. They will also ask the jury to assess additional punitive damages. Eight days of testimony included videos of Jones and Infowars employees talking about the Sandy Hook conspiracy and even mocking Heslin’s description in a 2017 television interview that he’d held his dead son Jesse’s body “with a bullet hole through his head.” Heslin described that moment with his dead son to the jury.

In a courtroom in Austin, Texas, conspiracy theorist Alex Jones faced the parents of a child killed in the 2012 Sandy Hook school shooting.

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'Do you know what perjury is?' lawyer asks Jones under oath after startling revelation.

"The day Sandy Hook happened, Alex Jones planted a seed of misinformation that lasted a decade," parents' lawyer Kyle Farrar told the jury in closing arguments. Jones was the only witness to testify in his defence. That portion will involve a separate mini-trial with Jones and economists testifying to his and his company's net worth. Once they determine whether Jones should pay the parents compensation for defamation and emotional distress, they must then decide if he must also pay punitive damages. Jones has already tried to protect Free Speech Systems financially. He continued to take that line while under oath today, until lawyer Mark Bankston produced evidence of the hundreds of texts he received from Jones' own lawyers, the New York Post reports. They will also ask the jury to assess additional punitive damages. The company filed for federal bankruptcy protection last week. Eight days of testimony included videos of Jones and Infowars employees talking about the Sandy Hook conspiracy and even mocking Heslin's description in a 2017 television interview that he'd held his dead son Jesse's body "with a bullet hole through his head". Heslin described that moment with his dead son to the jury. Courts in Texas and Connecticut have already found Jones liable for defamation for his portrayal of the Sandy Hook massacre as a hoax involving actors aimed at increasing gun control. Then Jones found himself apparently caught in another lie on the stand in the Texas courtroom after he learned his lawyers had accidentally sent hundreds of his texts on the school shooting to the opposing side. For years, the bombastic, far-right Infowars founder ranted to his millions of followers that the 2012 Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting was a hoax, that children weren't killed and that parents were crisis actors in an elaborate ruse to force gun control.

Conspiracy theorist Alex Jones testified Wednesday that he now understands it was irresponsible of him to declare the Sandy Hook Elementary School massacre.

Last September, the judge admonished Jones in her default judgment over his failure to turn over documents requested by the Sandy Hook families. The plaintiffs' attorneys were furious about Jones mentioning he is bankrupt, which they worry will taint the jury's decisions about damages. A key segment of the case is a 2017 Infowars broadcast that said Heslin didn't hold his son. Jones said that was the company's best day in sales. The jurors will consider damages in two phases. At stake in the trial is how much Jones will pay. Bankston then went after Jones' credibility, showing an Infowars video clip from last week when a host — not Jones — claimed the trial was rigged and featured a photo of the judge in flames. Then came another clip of Jones asking if the jury was selected from a group of people "who don't know what planet" they live on. They are seeking at least $150 million in the trial, which was held to determine how much Jones and his media company, Free Speech Systems, must pay for defaming Heslin and Lewis. Jones was the only person who testified in his own defence. They described how Jesse was known for telling classmates to "run!" which likely saved lives. In a gripping exchange, Lewis spoke directly to Jones, who was sitting about 10 feet away.

A Texas judge on Thursday denied Alex Jones's motion for a mistrial in a defamation case over the U.S. conspiracy theorist's false claims about the Sandy ...

Register now for FREE unlimited access to Reuters.com An attorney for the parents, Mark Bankston, used the texts to undercut Jones’ testimony during cross-examination Wednesday. Register now for FREE unlimited access to Reuters.com

Alex Jones' conspiracies about Sandy Hook shootings have been exposed in court, and could cost the Infowars host millions in a Texas trial.

There is no mechanism in the law to make people like Jones act with a semblance of humanity. It is merely all that is left. Jones is on trial to determine how much he will have to pay the parents of Jesse Heslin, who was killed at Sandy Hook Elementary School on Dec. 14, 2012. Again, there is no winning when your children have been killed and someone with a large platform has lied about it and apparently caused his followers to harass you for years. It is still worth it to hear and see Jones, a man who perhaps does the impossible and gives conspiracy theorists an even worse name than they deserve, squirm and sweat and finally admit under oath that he lied and that facts are facts. UPDATE (Aug. 4, 2022, 5:28 p.m. ET): On Thursday, a jury ruled Infowars host Alex Jones must pay $4.1 million to the family of a 6-year-old killed in the 2012 Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting.

The Infowars host has already been found liable in lawsuits filed by the families of the Sandy Hook school shooting victims. A trial this week will begin to ...

The lawyers also presented financial records that contradicted Mr. Jones’s claim that he was bankrupt. This week’s trial in Austin, Texas, is the first of three that will determine how much Mr. Jones must pay the families. The cases never made it to a jury; Mr. Jones was found liable by default in all of them because he refused to turn over documents, including financial records, ordered by the courts over four years of litigation. And if you look at the world through dirty glasses, everything you see is dirty.” The long-running legal battle has been an unusual spectacle, including the revelation on Wednesday that Mr. Jones’s lawyer accidentally sent two years’ worth of text messages to the families’ lawyers. Just a few hours after the shooting, he began calling it a “false flag,” a secretive plot planned by the government as a pretext for taking away Americans’ guns.

An attorney representing two parents who sued conspiracy theorist Alex Jones over his false claims about the Sandy Hook massacre said the House committee ...

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Here are seven moments that could shape a jury's deliberations on Thursday in a trial to decide how much U.S. conspiracy theorist Alex Jones must pay ...

Register now for FREE unlimited access to Reuters.com Jones disputed Bankston's characterization that the photo depicted Gamble on fire. -There were several tense exchanges between Jones and Gamble. Before jurors entered the courtroom, Gamble told Jones to spit out his gum. "It seems absurd to instruct you again that you must tell the truth while you testify," she said. Register now for FREE unlimited access to Reuters.com Register now for FREE unlimited access to Reuters.com

Alex Jones will pay for defaming Sandy Hook parents, but we might never get back what his lie cost us all.

Jones has known ties to the ringleaders of several militia groups and others involved in the Capitol invasion, and the committee subpoenaed Jones as early as November 2021 for his role in the action. “You and your company want the world to believe that this judge is rigging this court proceeding to make sure that a script, a literal script, is being followed,” Bankston stated at one point. Throughout the trial, a major theme was trying to pin Jones himself down to a functional version of reality. If it feels as though pundits have hung on every word of the defamation trial, that’s because they have: A host of journalists and law bloggers have been livetweeting the trial minute to minute, from the courtroom and while following the courtroom livestream. This led to a bombshell courtroom reveal from the plaintiffs’ lawyer, Mark Bankston, on Wednesday, the final day of arguments in the case. He also filed for bankruptcy in April, despite making as much as $50 million annually, in a clear attempt to delay financial judgment in one of the other lawsuits. The case’s shocking revelations, which now include a potential link to January 6, 2021, are reminders that the kind of zealous paranoid thinking Jones encourages can have dangerous and unintended consequences. A total of 10 families eventually sued Jones beginning in 2018, bringing two suits in Texas, where Jones runs Infowars, and one in Connecticut, where the shooting occurred. A major courtroom bombshell on the last day of testimony in which Jones’s lawyer accidentally handed over the entire contents of his phone to the prosecution, revealing the extent of Jones’s deception — a snafu that also inadvertently tipped off the House January 6 committee. Jones has spent years fighting his way to the courtroom. As a result of the claims, Infowars fans harassed, stalked, and threatened the families for years, pushing some into hiding. That’s far less than the $150 million they were seeking; a jury decision on whether to award the family punitive damages, which may be based on Jones’s overall net worth, is still pending.

Far-right Infowars owner faced defamation trial for repeatedly saying the school shooting was a hoax.

Those messages included texts that contradicted claims Jones had made under oath in a prior deposition that he had nothing on his phone pertaining to the Sandy Hook massacre. Jones grumbled that Bankston had gotten his “Perry Mason moment” at his expense, alluding to the TV attorney who would win his cases by getting those he was questioning to dramatically confess to wrongdoing on the witness stand. For its part, the plaintiffs’ legal team subjected Jones to a withering cross-examination. Reynal asked jurors to limit his client’s damages to a single dollar, despite evidence during the trial that Infowars earned more than $800,000 daily some days. That set up a trial beginning on 25 July whose sole purpose was to determine how much money Jones owed Jesse Lewis’s parents in compensation and possible punitive damages. That myth, consumed by Jones’ millions of followers, prompted a man to go there with a high-powered rifle and fire shots inside in 2016.

Right-wing talk show host Alex Jones will have to pay the parents of a Sandy Hook shooting victim a little more than $4 million in compensatory damages, ...

Fighting back tears at times, Heslin told the jury that Jones, through his conspiratorial media organization Infowars, "tarnished the honor and legacy" of his son. "But that jury understood the truth and resisted the propaganda." He testified in court this week that he now believed it to be "100% real." That's why the company has few assets." At the start of the trial, attorneys for Lewis and Heslin asked the jury to award their clients $150 million in compensatory damages. His failure to do so led to Heslin and Lewis winning default judgments judgements against Jones. "Neil and Scarlett are thrilled with the result and look forward to putting Mr. Jones' money to good use," Bankston added. But I'm sorry.' That's how I see it." Facing multiple lawsuits, Jones later acknowledged the shooting occurred. "There has not been a sincere apology," she said. "Mr Jones on the other hand will not sleep easy tonight. A separate, shorter trial during which punitive damages will be discussed is now expected.

Conspiracy theorist Alex Jones has been ordered to pay $US4.1m in damages after falsely claiming the Sandy Hook school shooting in 2012 was a hoax.

The messages could be of interest to the congressional panel investigating last year's US Capitol riot. Jones also conceded the killings were "100 percent real" and accused the media of not allowing him to retract his false claim. Jones repeatedly argued that the shooting was a hoax organised by the US government to strip Americans of gun ownership rights, and that the parents of the dead children were actors.

The Austin jury must still decide how much the Infowars host must pay in punitive damages to Neil Heslin and Scarlett Lewis, whose son Jesse Lewis was among the ...

But Heslin and Lewis told jurors that an apology wouldn't suffice and called on them to make Jones pay for the years of suffering he has put them and other Sandy Hook families through. The Texas award could set a marker for other cases against Jones and underlines the financial threat he's facing. A Connecticut judge has ruled against him in a similar lawsuit brought by other victims' families and an FBI agent who worked on the case. The parents had sought at least US$150 million in compensation for defamation and intentional infliction of emotional distress. - Conspiracy theorist Alex Jones concedes Sandy Hook ... A Texas jury has ordered conspiracy theorist Alex Jones to pay more than US$4 million ($6.35M) in compensatory damages to the parents of a 6-year-old boy who was killed in the Sandy Hook Elementary School massacre.