Alex Jones

Conspiracy theorist Alex Jones must pay $4.11 million in defamation damages for falsely claiming the 2012 Sandy Hook school shooting was a hoax, ...

Jones testifies in defamation trial after being sued by parents of victims for $150m for pushing false 'crisis actors' theory.

He is the only person testifying in defense of himself and his media company, Free Speech Systems. You are under oath.” “It was … especially since I’ve met the parents.

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

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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.

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.

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.

In the defamation trial over Sandy Hook, he's been explaining the Matrix while his attorneys accidentally gave the defense two whole years of his texts and ...

Jones wasn’t about to get upstaged by his lawyers, however, bringing plenty of showmanship of his own. Describing his programming as a way for his audience to become “awake and aware” to the ways of the world, Jones said, “You can’t be told about the Matrix; you have to see it.” (“Let’s slow down a little bit,” his lawyer replied.) He defended the health supplements funding his operation as far superior to the nootropic “crap you can buy at a gas station.” At one point, the judge patiently had to explain that what Jones saw on TV was hearsay. Scarlett Lewis and Neil Heslin, whose son Jesse was murdered at the Connecticut elementary school in 2012, initially sought $150 million in compensatory damages from Jones, whose business filed for bankruptcy earlier this year.

The 11 golfers are now on the LIV Golf Series and joined the lawsuit, which challenges their suspension from the PGA Tour. Three of the 11 — Talor Gooch, Hudson ...

It was the first big test at the ballot box since the Supreme Court's decision There's a "code red" prohibiting planes from flying over the site, but helicopters like this one have been allowed to survey it: "It does establish that it's a minimum ambition, and certaintly that there is no cap to our ambition. By Peta Fuller By Peta Fuller By Peta Fuller

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.

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.

A jury is deliberating how much Alex Jones should pay in damages to the family of a child killed in the 2012 Sandy Hook school shooting — which he had ...

Mr Jones said that was the company's best day in sales. "Speak the truth in your verdict. Mr Bankston showed the court an InfoWars video from last week which featured a host — not Mr Jones — who claimed the trial was rigged and displayed a photo of Judge Maya Guerra Gamble in flames. My son got confronted yesterday." They are seeking $US150 million ($216 million) in damages from Mr Jones and his company, Free Speech Systems LLC — the parent company of InfoWars — for what, they say, has been a "living hell" of death threats, harassment and trauma. "It's a hundred per cent real.

Alex Jones admitted the Sandy Hook school shooting was “100% real” in a Texas court Wednesday after calling it a hoax for years, but was soon caught in ...

Bankston, the lawyer for plaintiffs Neil Heslin and Scarlett Lewis, grilled Jones, who took the stand as the only witness in his defence. Jones said he didn’t intend the dig to be taken literally. Jones’ company filed for bankruptcy protection amid a slew of lawsuits, but the bankruptcy file hasn’t been granted. “Your beliefs do not make something true. “This is not your show,” Gamble said after dismissing the jury. Jones’ legal team — in an apparent error — sent a digital receipt of every text he sent about Sandy Hook over the past two years to the lawyers for a Sandy Hook victim’s parents who are suing him for defamation.

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.

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

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.

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.

A gleeful streak of schadenfreude shot through the internet on Wednesday, as a video clip of Alex Jones realizing that his own attorney accidentally sent a ...

Jones has spent so long broadcasting his warped view of the world, making claims about inter-dimensional pedophiles, human-animal hybrids and false flags, never seeming to suffer the consequences. Jones seems to make a good living from amplifying hate and selling supplements to his gullible followers, despite his reputation as an underdog muzzled by big tech. Rogan often frames Jones’ deranged outbursts as a joke, diminishes his role in amplifying hateful conspiracies, and, bizarrely, treats the man with a certain reverence.

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.

A Texas jury orders conspiracy theorist Alex Jones to pay $US4.11 million in damages to the parents of a six-year-old boy who was killed in the Sandy Hook ...

After tomorrow, he's going to owe a lot more." I admitted it was a mistake. And shortly after Jones declared "I don't use email", Jones was shown one that came from his address, and another one from an InfoWars business officer telling Jones that the company had earned $US800,000 gross in selling its products in a single day, which would amount to nearly $US300 million in a year. Jones, who has portrayed the lawsuit as an attack on his First Amendment rights, conceded during the trial that the attack was "100 per cent real" and that he was wrong to have lied about it. "I admitted I was wrong. A Texas jury has ordered conspiracy theorist Alex Jones to pay more than $US4.11 million ($5.9 million) in damages to the parents of a six-year-old boy who was killed in the Sandy Hook Elementary School massacre.

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.