InfoWars founder and blathering conspiracy theory peddler Alex Jones was handed yet another legal setback on Friday.
Jones is being sued by several family members of the victims of the 2012 Sandy Hook Elementary School massacre in Newtown, CT, for claiming the mass shooting was a hoax. In one of those cases, six families of victims killed at Sandy Hook and the family of a former FBI agent are accusing Jones of profiting from lies he continuously told on his radio and online networks about the killings.
A Superior Court judge in CT ruled Friday that Jones must turn over discovery material, including internal financial and marketing documents, to the plaintiffs in the case.
According to the Hartford Courant:
Among the documents to which Judge Barbara Bellis granted the families access are business and marketing plans for Infowars, contracts between Infowars and organizations such as Facebook and Twitter, and all communications and/or documents, including letters, memos, emails, text messages, instant messenger logs, regarding Sandy Hook, crisis actors, shooter Adam Lanza and mass shootings.
In other words, the veil is about to be pulled back once and for all on Jones’ abusive tactics. Next week, the judge will decide whether lawyers representing the families can depose Jones and his associates in the case.
“From the beginning, we have alleged that Alex Jones and his financial network trafficked in lies and hate in order to profit from the grief of Sandy Hook families. That is what we intend to prove, and today’s ruling advances our effort,” Christopher Mattei, an attorney representing the families, said in a statement. “We look forward to gaining access to Infowars’ internal marketing and financial documents to show that Jones has built an empire as nothing more than a conspiracy profiteer, as alleged in our complaint.”
Attorneys also noted that families of the victims were subjected to “physical confrontations and harassment, death threats and personal attacks on social media” because of Jones and InfoWars’ alleged conspiracies against them, ABC News reported.
Jones and his attorney argue that his actions are protected by the First Amendment.
The families of additional Sandy Hook victims also are suing Jones in separate cases in Texas. Last August, a Texas judge ruled that those cases could move forward after rejecting Jones’ request to have them dismissed.
The CT lawsuit “alleges that Jones knew the claims were false but kept perpetuating them because it was good for his ratings, drew advertisers and made him money,” the Courant reported.
In recent months, InfoWars and Jones have been banned from various social media sites, including Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube, among others. However, his horrendous programming has made its way back onto some of those networks through splinter accounts and other users, The Daily Beast reported.
In December, former Trump campaign adviser Roger Stone settled a defamation lawsuit brought against him by a Chinese businessman. As part of the settlement, Stone was required to admit that he lied about the man, Guo Wengui, on Jones’ show.