AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — Conspiracy theorist Alex Jones wasn’t in court Wednesday as his attorneys argued that the “Infowars” host who has called the 2012 Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting a hoax didn’t defame one victim’s parents who say they’ve been tormented by his followers and forced to move seven times.
The hearing included more than a half-hour of an Infowars episode played for a Texas judge, who at one point told onlookers to remain silent after some gasped when a lawyer for the parents said Infowars showed maps to the home of Veronique De La Rosa and Leonard Pozner.
Their 6-year-old son, Noah Pozner, was among the 20 children and six adults killed in the Newtown, Connecticut, massacre. They have sued Jones for defamation in a case that centers on the host falsely claiming on Infowars that De La Rosa taped an interview with CNN in front of a studio green screen and not outside a town hall in Newtown.
The lawsuit was filed in Travis County, Texas, where Jones’ media company is based.
The parents contend that Jones had made them part of the Sandy Hook conspiracy in what is one of two defamation lawsuits that the Infowars host is trying to throw out this week. On Thursday, his attorneys will also ask for the dismissal of another case brought by a man falsely identified on the Infowars website as the gunman who killed 17 people at a Florida high school in February.
Jones has since admitted the Sandy Hook shooting occurred and his attorney, Mark Enoch, began the hearing by saying that his client wanted “to reiterate the fact that he is sorry for their loss.” But Enoch said the lawsuit doesn’t rise to the level of defamation.
“Maybe it’s fringe speech. Maybe it’s dangerous speech,” Enoch said after playing portions of an Infowars episode. “But it’s not defamation. That is rhetorical hyperbole at its core.”
State District Judge Scott Jenkins has a month to decide whether to let the lawsuit proceed.
De La Rosa and Pozner also didn’t attend the nearly three-hour hearing, in which their attorney called claims that the CNN interview was taped “monstrously stupid” and said the family has been exposed to threats.
A similar lawsuit against Jones has also been filed in Connecticut. Several families in that suit say that Jones’ comments on Infowars have tormented them and subjected them to harassment and death threats by his followers, some of whom have accused them of being crisis actors. Jones has argued he was acting as a journalist.
This is a tricky one for me - not sure where I fall on it. Restricting speech is something we should be very careful about.
Shut that fat fucking lunatic down, what he does is NOT journalism…
Less about restricting speech, more about responsibility of the consequences of that speech when given a platform, that doxes, evokes violence and tacitly endorses vigilantism. If it was the govt bringing charges then it would be a restriction of speech case - in my opinion.
The constitution is not a suicide pact,
and
You cannot shout FIRE in a crowded theater.
There are limits to free speech, in a real world.
Yes restricting speech can be tricky but when a bad actor/journalist has repeatedly fed the rubes lies and then tries to claim “he’s sorry for their loss” years later all the while profiting from his lies then I’m going with restrict his speech.
Jones and Trump are two story lines that are converging in real time. Jones has for years stoked the fears and outrage to his base, same as Trump is doing in a shorter amount of time.
If some follower of Jones had actually harmed, or killed a Sandy Hook parent would/could Jones be brought into the indicted’s defense?
As they say if you put it out on the internet it is always there. These parents whether they win or lose will always have to fear someone attacking them.