Alex Jones appeared in the Austin, Texas courtroom Tuesday after the jury heard testimony from the parents of the Sandy Hook children who were killed in 2012. Jones didn't appear in court until after the families spoke. The trial is to decide the amount that Jones must pay to the families after questioning the legitimacy of the mass shooting. The families spent years being attacked by conspiracy theorists motivated by Jones.
The InfoWars founder (now officially called InfoW, LLC), testified in court Tuesday afternoon after taking an oath to swear to tell the truth. It didn't go well. Ultimately, Judge Maya Guerra Gamble told the court staff that she was sending the jurors home after prosecutors took issue with Jones lying on the stand.
"Mr. Jones, you may not say to this jury that you complied with discovery," said Judge Gamble. "That is not true. You may not say it again."
The reason that Jones never got a decision from the jury in the case was that he refused to comply with the subpoena.
"In October, an Austin judge ordered a default judgment against Jones for defamation after he called the school shooting a hoax, leading Jones’ listeners to harass the victims’ families," the Texas Tribune explained. "In the past year, Jones has lost all the defamation lawsuits filed by 10 families of Sandy Hook victims."
"Discovery isn’t supposed to be a guessing game,” Fairfield (Connecticut) District Superior Court, Judge Barbara Bellis said. She explained that a default judgment is a kind of sanction of last resort. That doesn't fall under a jury's decisions. “The court held off on scheduling the sanctions hearing in the hopes that many of these problems would be corrected and that the Jones defendants would ultimately comply with their discovery obligations."
So, while testifying before the jury on Tuesday, Jones told them that cooperated with all of the discovery, which the courts all found was untrue.
"You may not tell this jury that you are bankrupt," the judge continued. "That is also not true. You may have filed for bankruptcy, I don't know that but I have heard that. That doesn't make a person or a company bankrupt. You're already under oath to tell the truth. You've already violated that oath twice today in those two examples. It seems absurd to instruct you again that you must tell the truth when you testify. Yet, here I am. You must tell the truth while you testify. This is not your show. You need to slow down and not take what you see as opportunities to further the message that you're wanting to further. Instead, only answer the specific and exact questions you've been asked. No asides. The comments about discovery. The comments about the larynx or whatever it was."
At one point Jones began clearing his throat and coughing on the stand and his lawyer quickly asked if he needed some water. Jones explained that he had surgery on his larynx at one point. He also spoke to the judge about having a tooth pulled recently when she admonished him for chewing gum. He said he wasn't chewing gum it was part of the gauze he had in his mouth and opened it trying to show her. She told him to close it and sit down.
"None of those were responses to questions," she continued. "They're just you abusing my tolerance and making asides to the jury improperly and in at least two cases, untruthfully. Do you understand what I have said?"
Jones began to speak.
"Yes or no!" the judge interjected. "Do you understand what I have said."
"Yes," said Jones. "I believe what I said was true. So, I don't know —"
"Yes, you believe everything you say is true, but it isn't," Judge Gamble said. "Your beliefs do not make something true. That is what we're doing here. Just because you claim to believe something is true does not make it true. It does not protect you. It does not allow — you're under oath. Those things must actually be true when you say them."
Jones began to speak again.
"Don't talk," she said. "Do you understand what I have said?"
"I do understand," Jones replied.
After the trial was adjourned for the day, Gady Epstein, editor for The Economist, observed Jones trying to speak to the Sandy Hook parents. The parents' lawyer stopped him, "You're not doing this."
"Why? Because you can't feed 'em fake videos anymore?" Jones shot back.
"Oh, shut your mouth," the lawyer said back.
"That's what you're trying to do, shut my mouth. You'll never succeed."
See the video below or at this link.
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