Conspiracy theory peddler Alex Jones admitted in court Wednesday that the shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School was real, citing his newfound belief after a day of brutal testimony offered in court by the parents of one of the children who was murdered.
Jones is trying to fend off a $150 million defamation lawsuit from the parents of Jesse Lewis, a 6-year-old boy who was shot and killed in the 2012 attack at a school in Newtown, Connecticut. Twenty students and six teachers died.
The victims have said Jones’ hoax claims on his Infowars website have turned their lives into a living nightmare where threats, abuse, and harassment plague them daily. Jones, meanwhile, has portrayed himself as a victim of the press, who he argues are hellbent on typecasting him as a loon.
But the press doesn’t need to lift a finger to make Jones look bad.
NBC News reported that in court on Wednesday, Mark Bankston, a lawyer for the parents of the late Jesse Lewis, revealed Jones’ attorney had mistakenly sent a copy of every text Jones has sent for years directly to them. Bankston said he received this 12 days ago.
This prompted the day’s million-dollar question for Jones.
“You know what perjury is?” Bankston asked.
Wednesday, Aug 3, 2022 · 8:07:49 PM +00:00 · Brandi Buchman
According to Rolling Stone, an anonymous source told the outlet late Wednesday that the Jan. 6 committee is preparing a subpoena for the texts accidentally sent by Alex Jones’ attorney to the attorneys representing the parents of the Sandy Hook shooting victim.
Per a thread from NBC, Bankston also raised the matter of the many emails uncovered where Jones is expressly discussing Sandy Hook. Jones has previously said—under oath—that he was unable to find any on that subject for the court.
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NBC reported that Jones appeared “shocked” at the development.
Some of the information in the exposed texts included details on how much Jones’ Infowars program was raking in. In 2018, there were times the show earned $800,000 a day, and after Jones was de-platformed, that rate was on track to just keep increasing.
Jones was booted from Facebook, Apple, Spotify, and YouTube in 2018 in light of his incessant promotion of hatred, his glorifying of violence, and his dehumanizing of various groups, including immigrants, the LGBT community, Muslims, and others.
Jones only yesterday told Judge Gamble he was bankrupt. The verdict on that is still out, and when he made the claim in court yesterday in front of jurors, the judge chastised him.
On Wednesday, Bankston said after Jones was de-platformed, he was on track to make at least $300 million annually. Jones defended the $800,000 days as a fluke that stemmed from a “really good week” at the Conservative Political Action Conference, or CPAC.
The waters are growing deep for Jones. The attorney for the Sandy Hook parents have him in a precarious position.
According to NBC, Bankston was heard on a hot mic at recess noting how no one in the courtroom has yet thought about what happens when the trove of texts goes to law enforcement.
That’s a good question, especially in light of his relationship to Jan. 6 and the attack on the U.S. Capitol. Jones sat for a deposition this January and invoked his Fifth Amendment right to more than 100 questions.
As soon as he was done with that, however, he went on his podcast to describe the questions and his responses. He called the Jan. 6 probe “tainted” and slammed investigators.
Analysis from civil rights attorney Andrew Laufer to Daily Kos then seems just as poignant today.
“You don’t have to be under oath in order to be held criminally liable regarding information contained in a statement. If he makes any incriminating statement under any circumstance, he can be held criminally liable for it,” Laufer said in January.
Two weeks ago, Jones’ ex-wife Kelly Jones came out publicly on Twitter, saying she had “insider info” relevant to the Jan. 6 committee’s investigation.
On Wednesday, Kelly Jones said she would send out a subpoena for the records promptly.
