Jones later told his podcast followers that the Sandy Hook families are trying to “demonize” him.
Infowars host Alex Jones has finally been deposed by lawyers for Sandy Hook families, who claim that the conspiracy theorist defamed them by suggesting that the mass shooting was staged.
According to ABC News, relatives of some of the 20 children and 6 educators killed in the 2012 shooting filed suit after Jones said the massacre never really happened.
While Jones denied any wrongdoing, he failed to reply to the proceedings and was found liable for damages. A trial to set the amount is expected in August.
As LegalReader.com has reported before, Jones—a Texas resident—had been ordered to appear in an Austin court several times. However, Jones refused the deposition orders, saying he was too ill to attend court.
Last week, Connecticut-based Judge Barbara Bellis said there was not enough evidence that Jones was sick. In her finding, Bellis observed that Jones had appeared on his podcast the same week he claimed to be ill.
Bellis eventually ordered Jones to Connecticut for questioning, setting escalating day-fines until Jones arrived.
Jones, says ABC News, was fined $25,000 for refusal to appear on Friday, and an additional $50,000 in fines on Monday.
Speaking on Infowars on Tuesday, Jones said that the families’ lawyers began the deposition by “demonizing” him for simply “questioning” the official version of events.
“It’s totally insane to sit there and watch this happen and watch them lick their lips and lick their chops and think we’re going to finally shut Alex Jones down,” Jones said. “These people want to put us in prison for our speech.”
An attorney for Jones, Norman Pattis, said that “tempers flared” during the deposition, and that much of the questioning had little to do with the school shooting.
“I had the impression watching the attack on Mr. Jones that this trial will be about something far greater than what happened at Sandy Hook,” Pattis said on video. “The trial’s going to be about ordinary people’s ability to say, ‘I’m not buying it, I want to raise questions, I want to draw my own conclusions.’”
Lawyers for the victims’ families say that Jones simply refused to sit for deposition because he is afraid of being exposed and embarrassed.
“It seems to us that Mr. Jones has made a deliberate decision that he would rather suffer the contempt of the Court than expose himself to deposition,” attorney Christopher Mattei said late last week.
Sources
Alex Jones appears for questioning in Sandy Hook lawsuit
Alex Jones ordered to start paying fines for failing to show up at Sandy Hook suit deposition
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