Alex Jones is reminiscent of a fast-talking, bombastic, sideshow showman of yesteryear — capable of selling “snake oil” to cure the consumption or the grippe in the wild, wild west.
Today, the entertainer extraordinaire was reprimanded by a judge for his theatrics in court and for amplifying the emotional distress of the parents of Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting victims.
Wednesday was a bad day in court for Alex Jones. The defamation suit against the Infowars founder veered into the red zone when it was revealed that Jones’ attorney inadvertently sent Jones’ text messages to the prosecution team.
Jones, who specializes in sensationalizing and exploiting conspiracy theories on his talk show, has alleged that the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting was a hoax and that reports of victims were fictional.
The shooting took place in Newtown, Connecticut, on December 14, 2012.
Neil Heslin and Scarlett Lewis, parents of six-year-old victim Jesse Lewis, one of 20 children killed during the horrific mass shooting, have led in filing a defamation suit against Jones.
For several years after the murderous rampage at the school, Jones claimed the shooting was staged and referred to the parents of the slain children as “crisis actors” allegedly hired by the “deep state.”
According to The Daily Wire, on Tuesday Jones spoke in his defense, admitting that his claims that the shooting was a hoax were false but noting that he never intended to cause any harm.
In a statement some viewed as designed to minimize responsibility for his egregious claims, Jones testified: “I question every big event,” according to Yahoo News.
According to NBC News senior reporter Ben Collins, in a surprise move on Wednesday, prosecuting attorney Mark Bankston, said to Jones: “12 days ago, your attorneys messed up and sent me a digital copy of every text [you sent regarding the Sandy Hook massacre]. ‘You know what perjury is?”
Collins, who is watching the trial, followed his tweet by noting Bankston was “now asking Jones about the times he has emailed about Sandy Hook over the last several years, despite testifying under oath he couldn’t find any emails about Sandy Hook. There are apparently a lot of them.”
In a third tweet, Collins noted that the judge proceeded to educate jurors “on the entire contents of Alex Jones’ phone.”
Seeking to dispel comments that the texts were inadmissible in court because they were inadvertently sent to the prosecution, the judge said: “What we do know is that [the texts were] not properly turned over when [they] should have been,” according to Collins.
The Daily Wire noted that “not only did the texts apparently confirm Jones had discussed Sandy Hook despite earlier testimony, they also revealed that, for at least a couple days in 2018, Jones’ website Infowars earned up to $800,000, a number Jones said was the result of a good week during the Conservative Political Action Convention.”
Heslin and Lewis testified against Jones on Tuesday.
“Jesse was real,” Lewis reportedly said. “I am a real mom.”
CBS News reported that during the trial, Jones acknowledged that “Scarlett Lewis is real” and that “her son died.” Jones also admitted on the stand that the massacre was “100% real.”
In what some see as the tell of an unrepentant man, Jones has continued hosting his popular Infowars broadcast as the trial unfolds, saying on Tuesday that the grieving father “acts like somebody on the spectrum” and “is being manipulated by some very bad people.”
On Wednesday, Judge Maya Guerra Gamble reprimanded Jones for “abusing my tolerance and making asides to the jury.”
“This is not your show,” Gamble told Jones, according to Yahoo. “You’re under oath. That means things must actually be true when you say them.”
“I believed them to be true,” Jones responded.
“You believe everything is true,” Gamble replied.
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