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Alex Jones had such an awful day on the witness stand inside an Austin, Texas courtroom that it may harm him in both legal and congressional proceedings involving the impacts of his conspiracy theories — and a number of top legal experts seem to think it's hilarious.
After 6-year-old Jesse Lewis was murdered in the 2012 Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting massacre, Jones spread the conspiracy theory that the mass shooting was a hoax.
Jesse's parents, Neil Heslin and Scarlett Lewis, successfully sued Jones for defamation and the lawsuit is currently determining the extent of monetary damages.
Mark Bankston, the parents' attorney, cornered Jones on the witness stand after he repeated his under-oath claim that there were no messages about 'Sandy Hook' on his phone.
RELATED: 'Serious as a heart attack': How Alex Jones just opened the door for much more serious consequences
“Mr. Jones, did you know that 12 days ago, your attorneys messed up and sent me an entire digital copy of your entire cellphone with every text message you’ve sent for the past two years?” Brankston asked.
That caught the eye of the House Select Committee Investigating the Jan. 6 Attack on the U.S. Capitol, which is reportedly preparing subpoenas to obtain the information. And there could also be implications in the Department of Justice investigation into Trump's attempts to overturn the election.
Many legal experts were amused by the trial.
Gibson Dunn partner Theodore Boutrous, Jr. declared, "Alex Jones is not only a horrible person, he is the worst libel defendant and worst witness of all time."
The attorney who brought down Trump University, Tristan Snell wondered if today may now incentivize Jones to flip.
"Sure, Alex Jones probably has a malpractice claim against his lawyers for turning over all his phone data to opposing counsel — but first he’ll owe millions to the Sandy Hook families and then likely be indicted as part of the January 6 conspiracy, if he doesn’t flip first," he wrote.
Former federal prosecutor Ron Filipkowski said, "imagine being the lawyer who just absolutely screwed your client due to incompetence, that client may end up going to jail because you hung him out to dry, and that client is Alex Jones. Take separate cars. Hire security. Consider relocating to another country and a name change."
Reporter Jan Wolfe, who covers legal affairs for Reuters, described how different it was from a normal trial.
"You rarely see surprise moments like this in trials. It's like something out of a TV show," she wrote. "Incredible stuff."
NBC News reporter Ben Collins had a similar observation.
"Seen a lot of Law & Order, haven't seen a twist as good as 'Alex Jones' lawyers accidentally sent Sandy Hook parents' lawyers the entire contents of his phone and his long-hidden financials, but they waited 12 days to let him lie' in my life," he said. "Just an absolutely wild day."
Watch MSNBC chief legal correspondent Ari Melber report on Jones' testimony below or at this link.
Text Bombshell Stuns Conspiracy Theorist Alex Jones In Trial On 'Sick' Sandy Hook Lies www.youtube.com
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'Serious as a heart attack': How Alex Jones just opened the door for much more serious consequences
August 03, 2022
On Wednesday, MSNBC anchor Ari Melber reacted to the explosive new development in the Alex Jones trial, where the far-right InfoWars webcaster was confronted by the opposing counsel with the texts off his own cell phone, accidentally leaked by Jones' own attorneys, which appear to show he perjured himself about his communications.
The trial concerns the exact amount of damages Jones is liable for over defaming the parents of the Sandy Hook massacre victims, whose children he claimed were crisis actors staged by the government. He was found liable for the underlying defamation last year. But, Melber suggested, this evidence could open the door to far more serious consequences.
"The judge has repeatedly tried to take control there where he has gone off the rails," said Melber — himself an attorney — playing a clip of Jones reacting to the news that the opposing lawyer had all of his communications. "Jones stammering. Pushing back. Obviously caught."
"This is as serious as a heart attack," said Melber. "That warning about perjury is real. Jones is being sued for defamation and now he has been caught lying on the stand and he hasn't even reached the punishment phase of how much he would have to pay. It could get worse. The cell phone data being discussed here is now all in the hands of the other side. Jones is doing his usual deflection. He has tried to say that all of this is a misunderstanding or just entertainment, and he has used his platform to repeatedly, willfully, and intentionally by and hurt people and he knows that what he lied about — what he claimed was some sort of false flag hoax — he always knew it was real." He then played a clip of Jones.
"It's 100 percent real and the media still ran with lies that I was saying it wasn't real, great, it's incredible," said Jones in the clip. "They won't let me take it back or they just want to keep me in the position of being the Sandy Hook man. I really do want to try to change things and hopefully be a more positive force when it comes to issues."
"This is what the start of accountability might look like," said Melber. "This is truly wild."
Ari Melber reports on Alex Jones' potential perjury www.youtube.com
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'Constitutional Sheriffs' chief says FBI agents are ‘Nuremberg officers’ for prosecuting J6 attackers
August 03, 2022
The founder of the Constitutional Sheriffs and Peace Officers Association argued that Federal Bureau of Investigation agents are just like Nazi death camp guards for investigating and arresting the Trump supporters who attacked the Capitol on Jan. 6 as part of Donald Trump's unsuccessful coup attempt.
Former Arizona Sheriff Richard Mack founded CSPOA in 2011 and served on the Board of Directors of the Oath Keepers. He is an inductee in the National Rifle Association Hall of Fame.
"The Constitutional Sheriffs and Peace Officers Association (CSPOA) is a large anti-government extremist group whose primary purpose it is to spread anti-government propaganda to, and recruit from, law enforcement personnel, especially county sheriffs and sheriff’s deputies," the Anti-Defamation League reported in 2021. "Although the Oath Keepers, another anti-government extremist group that recruits from law enforcement, have garnered more media attention in recent years, the CSPOA has arguably had more success infiltrating law enforcement, including at the executive level."
CNN's Sara Sidner interviewed Mack as part of an investigation into election-denying members of law enforcement.
READ: Cipollone will spill the beans — and make it the 'worst day for Donald Trump': Watergate prosecutor
When asked if the 2020 election was fraudulent, Mack lashed out of Trump Attorney General Bill Barr for debunking the delusion that there was fraud that would have changed the outcome of the election.
"He's a liar," Mack said, also accusing secretaries of state of lying.
Mack was also asked about Jan. 6.
"Anybody that went and broke into the Capitol deserves to be arrested, but what the FBI has done and the way they're going after people and people are still sitting in prison without charges and without trials and what they have done, oh, my gosh," he said, even though no J6 defendants are sitting in prison without charges. "It proves that the FBI will do anything they're told. They're a bunch of Nuremberg officers."
"You just compared the Federal Bureau of Investigation officers the rank and file to Nazis," Sidner noted.
"They just do what they're told," Mack repeated.
Mack then attempted to explain the "Nuremberg defense," but got it completely backward.
Richard Mack www.youtube.com
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