Alex Jones appears for questioning in Sandy Hook legal battle
6 April 2022, 16:14
Relatives of some of the 20 children and six teachers killed in the 2012 Newtown, Connecticut, massacre sued Mr Jones for defamation.
Alex Jones has been questioned by lawyers for families of Sandy Hook victims in Connecticut, where a judge ordered the Infowars host to face mounting fines until he appeared for a deposition.
Relatives of some of the 20 children and six teachers killed in the 2012 Newtown, Connecticut, massacre sued Mr Jones for defamation after he said the shooting never happened.
A judge found Mr Jones liable for damages and a trial on how much he should pay the families is set for August.
Mr Jones, who lives in Texas, defied a judge’s order to appear for a deposition in the case, saying he was too ill.
But Connecticut Judge Barbara Bellis said there was not enough evidence that Mr Jones was too sick to attend and ordered him to come to Connecticut for questioning and pay escalating daily fines until he did so.
Mr Jones paid $25,000 (£19,000) in fines for Friday and $50,000 (£38,000) in fines for Monday, according to court records.
A spokesman for the families and their lawyers at Bridgeport-based Koskoff, Koskoff & Bieder declined to comment on the deposition on Wednesday.
Mr Jones said in a video on the Infowars website that the deposition began on Tuesday and was to continue on Wednesday.
He said in the video the families’ lawyers began the deposition by “demonising” him because he questioned the official version of events.
“It’s just totally insane to sit there and watch this happen and to watch them lick their lips and lick their chops and think we’re going to finally shut Alex Jones down,” Mr Jones said.
“These people want to put us in prison for our speech.”
Mr Jones’ lawyer, Norman Pattis, said tempers flared at times during the deposition on Tuesday, and much of the questioning was not related to the school shooting.
“I had the impression watching the attack on Mr Jones that this trial will be about something far greater than what happened at Sandy Hook,” Mr Pattis said on the video.
“The trial’s going to be about ordinary people’s ability to say, ‘I’m not buying it, I want to raise questions, I want to draw my own conclusions.’”
Mr Jones missed the originally scheduled deposition in the case on March 23 and 24 in Austin, Texas.
He cited a health issue including vertigo that his doctors initially thought was a serious heart problem but turned out to be a sinus infection.
The claimants said they have been subjected to harassment and death threats from Mr Jones’ followers because of the hoax conspiracy promoted on his website show.
Mr Jones has since conceded the shooting did happen.
