Alex Jones reverses his hoax claim
Lawyer: InfoWars host ‘firmly believes’ shooting happened
After telling his vast internet audience that the deadly 2012 shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School was an elaborate hoax, Alex Jones, the host of InfoWars, no longer believes that to be true, according to a recent court filing in a defamation case brought by families of the massacre’s victims.
Jones, who has faced intense scrutiny from the families, the public and Congress, is asking a judge to toss out the lawsuit, arguing that he has First Amendment protections.
“The assassination of President Kennedy. The lunar landings. The September 11 attacks. Sandy Hook. From these shocking events emerged some people who thought them so disruptive that they questioned whether they even happened, scouring records in support of evidence that might prove them hoaxes. Alex Jones, host of a radio show and publisher of InfoWars, firmly believes that the December 14, 2012, shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School was not a hoax,” Jones’
attorney, Jay M. Wolman, wrote in a motion to strike the plaintiffs’ complaint filed last week.
Wolman points to storied investigative journalists Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein in supporting his argument for Jones.
“Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein relied on allegations from ‘Deep Throat’ to link the Nixon Administration to the Watergate break-in,” Wolman wrote. “Such journalism, questioning official narratives, would be chilled if reporters were subject to liability if they turned out to be wrong.”
The filing says that just once, on Dec. 28, 2014, “Mr. Jones referred to the shooting as a ‘hoax’ and ‘fake’ in less than two minutes of an 83-minute show. However, Mr. Jones has cometo the conclusion that the shooting happened. He has said so many times since then.”
Eight families of Sandy Hook victims filed suit against Jones, who lives in Texas, in Superior Court in Connecticut in May 2018. Court records show that lawyers were scheduled to begin jury selection next month, but jury trials have been placed on hold during the COVID-19 pandemic.
In a 165-page memorandum supporting his motion to have the defamation lawsuit dropped, Wolman agreed that the families suffered a tragedy in the school shooting, but said Jones was not responsible for it.
He denied Jones was the one saying the shooting was a hoax, but rather said Jones interviewed people who said that it was a hoax and also questioned the evidence of the shooting on his show.
“Alex Jones and InfoWars are not responsible for that tragedy. To punish them for First Amendment protected speech on this matter of public concern will not bring back the lives lost,” Wolman wrote. “To stifle the press (by making them liable for merely interviewing people who have strange theories) will simply turn this human tragedy into a Constitutional one.”
A judge has yet to rule on the motion to strike the complaint. The case was delayed for months as Jones’ attorneys fought sanctions brought on by Jones failing to provide information to the plaintiffs and using his internet radio program to lash out against an attorney for the families.
In July, the state Supreme Court upheld the sanctions. Judge Barbara Bellis has scheduled a status conference for the case on Oct. 27.