Controversial conservative radio show host Alex Jones seems to enjoy digging himself deeper and deeper into a hole. Not only did he claim that a devastating school shooting was not real, but he attempted to badmouth the judge who is overseeing the defamation case that parents of a child from Sandy Hook Elementary School have filed against him.
According to Daily Kos, the parents of Jesse Lewis, a 6-year-old boy who was shot and killed in the 2012 attack at the Connecticut school, said Jones’ hoax claims on his Infowars website have turned their lives into a living nightmare with threats, abuse, and harassment occurring daily. As a result, they filed a case against Jones, who admitted this week during trial the shooting was “100% real.”
Campaign Action
They are seeking $150 million from Jones, who has already been found liable in courts in Connecticut and Texas for defamation after making false statements that the school shooting was not only a hoax but that the grieving parents were liars. He claimed that the students who died were paid actors hired by Democrats to push gun-control measures.
"I knew they had actors there, clearly, but I thought they killed some real kids. And it just shows how bold they are, that they clearly used actors," Jones said on his show. Politifact has tracked several instances of Jones' comments where he told individuals that "Sandy Hook is a synthetic completely fake with actors, in my view, manufactured."
Twenty students and six teachers died in the tragic incident that Jones purposely claimed was not real to increase his show’s engagement.
Of course Jones was dragged for this, but that’s not all. What he didn’t expect were the texts exposing how much his show was making despite his claims he was bankrupt during the trial.
The plaintiffs' attorney, Mark Bankston, disclosed to Jones and the court that he had recently acquired evidence proving Jones had lied when he claimed during discovery that he had never texted about the 2012 Sandy Hook shooting. According to Bankston, it seems Jones' attorney may have accidentally sent him two years of cell phone records that included every text message Jones had sent.
The cell phone records show that Jones did indeed text about the Sandy Hook shooting.
"That is how I know you lied to me when you said you didn't have text messages about Sandy Hook," Bankston said.
And—shocker—this isn’t the only lie Jones said under oath. According to CNN, Jones was also asked during cross-examination whether he had connected Judge Maya Guerra Gamble to pedophilia and human trafficking. While Jones claimed he never did so, Bankston played a video for the court of an Infowars video in which he did just that.
In the video, Jones attacked Gamble's prior work for Child Protective Services by claiming the agency had been "exposed" for "working for pedophiles.”
Jones had described the same judge as “demonically possessed” prior to his testimony Tuesday.
He said, referring to Gamble: “They all act demonically possessed: The judge, the lawyers,” he continued. “People … committed to a cult ideology of the new world order.”
But of course, his defamation doesn't end there. He again attempted to badmouth the judge on Wednesday, calling her terms like “whacked out.”
Calling him out for his actions, the judge said:
"This is not your show. Your beliefs do not make something true. You are under oath. It seems absurd to instruct you again that you must tell the truth while you testify. Yet here I am."
Things for Jones seem to be getting worse and worse of his own accord. On Thursday, Gamble rejected Jones’ attempt at blocking the phone data from being used in court, as well as his bid that he was experiencing a mistrial.
"I'm not going to seal the quantity of information without knowing what's in it,” the Travis County judge said while rejecting Jones' motion.
Jones is clearly a horrible person. Why he thought lying about a shooting involving school children was okay is beyond anyone.
What’s even more heartbreaking than his disgusting actions is the testimony of both of Jesse Lewis’ parents.
Sitting on the witness stand and looking Jones straight in the eyes, Jesse Lewis’ mother said, "I wanted to tell you to your face. ... I am a mother, first and foremost, and I know you're a father. And my son existed.
“Jesse was real,” said Scarlett Lewis, Jesse’s mother, referring to Jones’ claim that the students killed in the shooting were “crisis actors.” Said Scarlett, “I’m a real mom,” according to The New York Times.
Lewis also testified that because of Jones, she has lived in fear in the decade following the shooting because she has received death threats from InfoWars listeners. “The fear and anxiety and unsafeness … keeps me from healing,” Lewis said. “It definitely negatively impacts the healing process.”
The boy’s father, Neil Heslin, also testified noting that his life has been “threatened.”
“I fear for my life. I fear for my safety and my family’s safety and their life.”
Lewis also noted that while Jones now alleges his theories were “crazy,” there “has not been a sincere apology.”
“But if there was, ever, I liken it to being in a car accident and you run over someone and cause tremendous bodily damage and you look at that person lying on the ground and say, ‘I’m so sorry, I’m so sorry, I’m not accountable for any of the damage I just caused. But I’m sorry.’ That’s how I see it,” Lewis said.
According to ABC News, Heslin said Jones has made his life a “living hell,” adding, “Alex started this fight and I’ll finish this fight.”
During closing arguments on Wednesday, attorney Kyle Farrar urged jurors to end the family’s nightmare and hold Jones accountable for profiting off of a child’s death.
"He was making money off of it by spreading misinformation and spreading lies," Farrar said, according to Reuters.
In the end, a jury will decide the monetary damages against Jones, who has claimed he is “bankrupt” despite InfoWars making approximately $50 million a year in sales of dietary supplements and text messages saying otherwise, Rolling Stone reported.
According to CBS News, Jones is facing several lawsuits from Sandy Hook families who allege that his claims led to years of abuse.
Trump and his followers proved on Jan. 6 how dangerously close they came to overturning our democracy. Help cancel Republican voter suppression with the power of your pen by clicking here and signing up to volunteer with Vote Forward, writing personalized letters to targeted voters urging them to exercise their right to vote this year.
