Alex Jones

Misinformation brought Alex Jones fame. Now, it is at the center of the Sandy Hook defamation trial.

“Call the White House and tell them we know the government is planning terrorism,” he said, according to Slate. The church incident also made Jones a celebrity among “patriot” militia members. He was able to raise $93,000 from listeners for the project. Jones had moderate success as a public access host, but he got his first real break that pushed him onto the public’s radar. “He said, ‘My son’s got some out-there ideas but I think he’d be perfect,’” Daryl O’Neal said. Jones was inspired by Gary Allen, whose book he found on his father’s bookshelf.

(Bloomberg Law) -- Conspiracy theorist Alex Jones must pay $4.11 million in defamation damages for falsely claiming the 2012 Sandy Hook school shooting was ...

Unless the judge seals the records, Bankston said he would turn them over. While on the stand this week, Jones admitted that the school shooting was “100% real” during his second day providing testimony. The court already determined in a 2021 default judgment that Jones was liable for defamation and intentional infliction of emotional distress. In the week-and-a-half trial, lawyers for both parents and Jones made their case in front of jurors in a post-default-judgment trial to determine how much he must pay for spreading lies that the massacre never happened. He also conceded that it was irresponsible of him to declare that the school shooting was a hoax. The trial was heated at times, with Judge Maya Guerra Gamble of the 459th District Court in Travis County telling Jones that he couldn’t lie to the jury during his first day of testimony.

Jones is being sued for defamation by the parents of a first grader killed at Sandy Hook Elementary School in 2012 for saying the school shooting was a hoax ...

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In his post-verdict statement, Jones also appealed to his supporters to buy T-shirts and books to keep InfoWars going.

At the end of the day, I don't have all these millions of dollars they claim I have," Jones continued. I made a mistake," Jones said in a video shared on Infowars on Thursday. "But not on purpose. In July, Free Speech Systems, the parent company of Jones' Infowars, filed for bankruptcy. I apologized to the families. Jones is currently moving through the first phase of his defamation damages trial. Jones' attorney, however, asked that the jury make his client pay no more than $8.

Infowars owner faced defamation trial for saying the school shooting was a hoax. Plus, how the Astroworld tragedy changed gigs for ever.

Most worryingly, all this is happening with a rise of just 1C in the planet’s average temperature. The Senate majority leader, Chuck Schumer, said lawmakers had achieved a compromise “that I believe will receive the support” of all Democrats in the chamber. Kevin Spacey haslost his appealto have a $31m (£25.5m) arbitration award to the producers of House of Cards overturned. No. In a separate phase on Friday, jurors are to determine whether Jones owes any punitive damages in addition to the compensation he was ordered to pay. Experts agree that neither the US nor China has the appetite for the tension to escalate to war. In a statement on behalf of the parents of a six-year-old Sandy Hook victim whose lawsuit set the trial in motion, the attorney Mark Bankston said: “Mr Jones … will not sleep easy tonight.”

Shocking news out of the defamation trial against Alex Jones: he lied openly in court. Could he go to prison?

Jones has long tried to obscure his total wealth, but with such large inflows, it is unlikely that he would be unable to comply with whatever the court’s final decision is. Legal experts have also said that the type of perjury committed by Jones carries up to ten years in prison if convicted. Most believe it was accidental as it would not be the best legal strategy to have your client perjurer themselves multiple times.

Far-right conspiracy theorist who runs Infowars website insisted for years that 2012 elementary school shooting was hoax; his phone contents reveal extent ...

“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. 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. Sure, we'll remove all ads from your page and you'll gain access to some amazing Community-only content. Jones has already tried to protect Free Speech Systems financially. They will also ask the jury to assess additional punitive damages. "I want you know that I'm a mother…I know that you're a father… 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. I am a real mom." That is what we're doing here." #SandyHookis a hard truth…." Under oath and facing a jury that could hit him with $150 million or more in damages for his false claims, Jones said Wednesday he now realizes that was irresponsible and believes that what happened in the deadliest school shooting in American history was “100% real.”

Jones was asked if he was aware that his lawyers had revealed texts that showed he had spoken about Sandy Hook, something he had denied under oath.

"I mean, I'm not a tech guy," Jones said. Bankston is representing Neil Heslin and Scarlett Lewis, who lost their 6-year-old son, Jesse, in the Sandy Hook shooting. When the judge prompted Jones to answer Bankston's question on whether he was aware of what happened with his text messages, he said that he wasn't.

The always controversial conspiracy theorist Alex Jones is currently on trial for defamation in Texas to determine how much money he should pay two parents ...

Given that Jones is one of the most unpopular people on the internet him finally getting his comeuppance in front of the cameras was the schadenfreude that everyone needed. Jones hadn't given over the documents or the texts to anyone but it was revealed by the plaintiff's attorney, Mark Bankston, that Jones's own incompetent attorney had accidentally sent him an entire digital copy of the InfoWars' host's phone data, including his text messages from the last two years. During a cross-examination, Jones was accused of lying to the court when he claimed that he had turned over all documents including text messages about discussions on the 2012 mass shooting.

Trending Articles · 1. Alex Jones · 2. January 6 · 3. Covid-19 · 4. Taiwan · 5. Jackie Walorski · BREAKFAST BROWSE. The FAA is asking for public feedback on airplane ...

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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.

Testifying before the jury Jones said: “Especially since I've met the parents. It's 100% real.” He was taken to court in Austin, Texas, by Neil Heslin and ...

We have been appealing to the common decency of far-right provocateurs for a long time. On Friday they ordered Jones to pay an additional $45.2m in punitive damages. We have been appealing to the common decency of far-right provocateurs for a long time. Start your Independent Premium subscription today. The jury has told Alex Jones to pay an additional $45.2m in punitive damages on top of the $4.1m in compensatory damages they ordered him to pay yesterday. The jury has told Alex Jones to pay an additional $45.2m in punitive damages on top of the $4.1m in compensatory damages they ordered him to pay yesterday.

InfoWars founder and conspiracy theorist Alex Jones continued his maligning of presiding Travis County, Texas District Court Judge Maya Guerra Gamble on ...

I mean, this is like a tour-de-force of how to violate people's rights," Jones said in a phone call. She also made this really weird statement where she said, 'you believe everything you say is the truth.'" That mishap immediately raised suspicions that Jones had perjured himself in prior testimony.

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. Walorski, who was 58, represented Indiana's 2nd Congressional District and had previously served as a member of the Indiana House of Representatives. The congresswoman also served as the top Republican on the House Ethics Committee, a spot that put her in line to become chair of the panel if the GOP retakes the House majority in the upcoming midterm elections. The LIV Golf series has been controversial because it is backed by a fund chaired by Mohammed bin Salman, the Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia, whom US intelligence reports say was responsible for approving the operation that led to the 2018 murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi. They also downplay regular screening testing for Covid-19 in schools as a way to monitor the spread of the virus. as early as this week, which could affect how the virus is handled in schools as a new year begins. for his relentless peddling of conspiracy theories related to the tragedy. In another notable moment during cross-examination, Jones was asked whether he had connected the judge overseeing the trial to pedophilia and human trafficking.

Twitch streamer HasanAbi has been dragged for comparing Alex Jones' Sandy Hook trial with the Johnny Depp Amber Heard case.

"not only is this tasteless but the trial he's talking about is of a school shooting where kids died??? Jones had previously stated that "no one died" in Sandy Hook and believes it was "staged." A clip showing Jones reacting to the news that his lawyer accidentally sent a record of his texts and emails to the opposition has gone viral.

'Having a six-year-old son shot in his forehead in his classroom is unbearable... You think I'm an actress?' Scarlett Lewis asked Jones directly at one ...

“I hope to accomplish an era of truth. “I think you know that Sandy Hook is real and that it happened... “This is a real event. “Having a six-year-old son shot in his forehead in his classroom is unbearable. An era of truth. “It’s our responsibility. You’re still on your show, today, trying to say that I am — implying — that I’m an actress. “Do you have the capacity to put yourself in my shoes? Sandy Hook is a hard truth. And I don’t understand.” I know that you’re a father,” Lewis told Jones. Do you have empathy?”

Jurors have begun determining how much money Alex Jones must pay to the parents of 6-year-old Sandy Hook shooting victim, Jesse Lewis, for defamation.

Jurors also were told that Jones and his company inflicted intentional emotional distress on Heslin and Lewis by repeatedly portraying the Sandy Hook shooting as a hoax from 2012 to 2018, when they filed suit. Jurors also were asked to determine the amount of money that would fairly compensate Heslin for past and future damage to his reputation and past and future mental anguish caused by the defamatory reports. The jurors next will be asked to award punitive damages that are intended as punishment. Heslin testified that he made the statement in an NBC interview in hopes of stopping Jones' campaign and to protect the legacy of his son, who died a hero by yelling "Run!" when the gunman paused. Before hearing closing arguments Thursday, jurors were informed that Jones and Free Speech Systems defamed Heslin in two 2017 InfoWars reports that questioned Heslin's claim that he held his dead son and saw the bullet wound to his head after the shooting. Ten of the 12 jurors agreed on the verdict — the minimum number required for a decision.

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.

Alex Jones will face three separate jury trials to determine how much money he owes Sandy Hook victims' families in damages, after the Infowars host lost a ...

Jones’s exchanges reportedly suggested that Infowars could make up to $800,000 per day, and while Jones accused Bankston of “cherry-picking” the biggest figures, he couldn’t really answer for the documents themselves. That we have to implore you — not just implore you, punish you — to get you to stop lying … It is surreal what is going on in here.” According to the Times, Jones watched Heslin’s testimony on a courtroom livestream, calling him “slow” and “manipulated by some very bad people.” According to the Times, one of the last pieces of evidence presented to the jury before it began deliberations heavily suggested Jones had lied on the stand. “And then to have someone on top of that perpetuate a lie that it was a hoax, that it didn’t happen, that it was a false flag, and that I was an actress — you think I’m an actress?” Lewis continued, according to CNN. “It seems so incredible to me that we have to do this. “And these lies were meant to convince his audience that the Sandy Hook parents are frauds and have perpetrated a sinister lie on the American people.” According to the Times, Jones gave a radio broadcast during Heslin’s court appearance — an absence Heslin described as “cowardly.” “I did not lie to people on purpose,” he said. On a regular basis, Jones has espoused antisemitic and Islamophobic rhetoric; he was also a key proponent of the Pizzagate conspiracy, which resulted in a gunman firing shots inside a D.C. pizzeria, and of the “Stop the Steal” movement. The Texas Tribune reports that starting on the day of the shooting, he used Infowars to advance the baseless idea that Sandy Hook was a coordinated plot — “synthetic, completely fake, with actors, in my view, manufactured,” he said during a 2015 show. I can question big PR events like Sandy Hook, where there are major anomalies,” he said, according to the Times. “They’re using Sandy Hook, and they’re using the victims and their families as a way to get rid of free speech in America. That’s the plan.” Heslin and Lewis sued Jones in 2018. “They have their own community, and they have the ear of some very powerful people.”

Alex Jones won't be able to take advantage his legal team's mistake in releasing his text messages because claims of ineffective counsel only apply to ...

“If he were to adopt the ‘my lawyer messed up claim,’ that argument is dead on arrival.” Jones and his attorneys have repeatedly faced admonishments over their conduct during the course of the defamation case. But that argument is also unlikely to convince a judge, said John Browning, a trial lawyer and former Texas appellate justice. He moved for a mistrial and an emergency protection order for the messages, which the judge overseeing the case denied. “The proof there will be tough.” Ineffective counsel appeals that can apply to criminal trials can’t be pursued in civil litigation.

The House January 6 committee has contacted the attorney for a family suing Alex Jones for defamation in an attempt to obtain the far-right conspiracy ...

Jones lost on the merits of the case by default, because he failed to provide any documents in response to the lawsuit. Reynal also asked Guerra Gamble to block the release of materials on Jones’s phone to anyone, including the January 6 committee. The texts could shed light on the extent – if any – of that coordination. The texts are potentially significant because Jones has claimed that on 3 January 2020 he was asked by the Trump White House and the Secret Service to lead a march from the Ellipse to the Capitol three days later. Jones’s attorney, Andino Reynal, requested a mistrial on Thursday, over the purportedly accidental leak. He also said he intended to comply with the requests unless a court order instructed him not to.

An attorney representing two parents who sued conspiracy theorist Alex Jones over his false claims about the Sandy Hook massacre says the U.S. House Jan.

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Links to Alex Jones' cellphone texts and data were included in information inadvertently provided to lawyers for a Sandy Hook family.

"The whole thing is tainted," he said of the investigation by the U.S. House select committee. "If not, the cat's out of the bag," he said. "I am not going to seal the entire quantity of information without knowing what was in it," Guerra Gamble said. "When I told him to please disregard the link, that should've been enough." Almost two weeks ago, after Bankston informed him that links to numerous files might have been sent in error, Reynal said he quickly responded by saying, "Please disregard the link." I'm not eating the soup." — during an InfoWars broadcast that same day. Reynal never did, he said. Be there, will be wild!" "We should know by the end of the day," he said. "That is a tremendous amount of information," Reynal said, but the judge did not sympathize, noting that Jones and his frequently changing team of lawyers had failed to comply with orders to turn over relevant information to the Sandy Hook families for years. "Mr. Reynal is, right now, using a fig leaf of this motion ... to cover his own malpractice, a fig leaf to cover his own breach of duty to his client," Bankston told the judge.

The conspiracy theorist's breathtakingly silly blunder underscores the urgent need to revamp ediscovery in US law.

If a lawyer sends over an email where they are giving a client advice, they can often get it back, but when the email shows the client is committing a crime, like perjury, that’s a different matter. But when plaintiffs don’t find the killer documents, ever-stricter state and federal rules make it harder to get your day in court. But many American attorneys were simultaneously swept by a wave of nausea and the visceral realization that this—maybe not a blunder this big and boneheaded, but something like it—could all-too-easily have happened to their clients. If we continue down this path, focusing more time and money on increasingly protracted legal battles over documents, our legal system will become even more about money and less about justice. But a screwup on the scale of Alex Jones’ lawyers is a whole other matter. Instead, for litigators, the courtroom has been replaced by electronic discovery, the sometimes years-long process of sifting through mountains of records to see what can be proven.

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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A clip from Alex Jones' defamation trial sees the InfoWars ham hock faced with records of his lies.

There’s Jones rolling his eyes and calling the reveal Bankston’s “Perry Mason moment.” There’s Jones staring at one of his own printed-out emails and having to confirm that he does, indeed, sometimes send emails. In the process, we see Jones try to squirm his way out of admitting he’s been lying under oath throughout the trial. Bipedal slab of sunburned beef chuck Alex Jones is on trial for defamation charges brought against him by the families of the 2012 Sandy Hook shooting’s victims.

The judge said it was “like the 17th time” Jones' lawyer had made such a request in the defamation damages trial brought by the parents of Sandy Hook ...

“Do you know where I got this?” Bankston asked Jones. “Your attorneys messed up and sent me a digital copy of your entire cellphone, with every text message you’ve sent for the past two years.” Jones is on trial for defamation after the right-wing media host repeatedly pushed claims denying the 2012 Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting and calling it a “hoax.” He is also facing a similar civil trial in Connecticut, where the court has similarly issued a default judgment against him. Gamble already issued a default judgment against Jones in October 2021, meaning the jury won’t actually be deciding whether Jones is liable or not, but rather just how much he has to pay.

The committee has previously requested records and a deposition from Jones regarding his role in the Capitol riot..

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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.

The parents sought $150 million in their defamation lawsuit against the conspiracy theorist. The jury could still issue more damages in an upcoming phase of ...

Jesse confronted the shooter and yelled for other children to run. See the growing speaker list and buy tickets. His claims led his listeners to harass the victims’ families and make death threats against them for years. Nine children were able to escape the classroom where they were hiding. Jurors decided the amount of damages Jones owes the parents after listening to evidence and testimonies from a range of witnesses for seven days. The case will now enter a new phase to determine punitive damages, which can be rewarded to punish a defendant for reckless, negligent or outrageous behavior or to deter future bad acts.

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.

The jury's decision Thursday marks the first time the Infowars host has been held financially liable for falsely claiming that the attack that killed 20 ...

They said the threats and harassment were all fueled by Jones and his conspiracy theory spread to his followers via his website Infowars. 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. At one point, Jones was told that his attorneys had mistakenly sent Bankston the last two years’ worth of texts from Jones’ cellphone. “We knew coming into this case it was necessary to shoot for the moon to get to understand we were serious and passionate. It also raises new questions about the ability of Infowars — which has been banned from YouTube, Spotify and Twitter for hate speech — to continue operating, although the company’s finances remain unclear. 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 InfoWars host and creator will have to pay $4.1 million to two parents whose 6-year-old son was killed at Sandy Hook Elementary in 2012.

Earlier Thursday, the plaintiffs' lawyer, Mark Bankston, said that he intended to turn over two years of text messages from Jones' cellphone to the U.S. House committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack on the capitol. "I think a big award like this shows that people need to be responsible about what they say," Adair said. And my son existed," said Scarlett Lewis, the mother of six-year-old Jesse Lewis, who was gunned down along with 25 other children and school staffers in 2012 at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn. In his defense, Jones told the said on the witness stand that, "I never intentionally tried to hurt you. Their attorney said the threats continued in Austin during the trial, forcing them to travel with a security detail. I never even said your name until this case came to court."