A judge has penalised InfoWars host Alex Jones for once again withholding documents from the attorneys representing the Sandy Hook families.
At the start of his defamation damages trial in Connecticut on Tuesday, the right-wing conspiracy theorist was reprimanded by the judge for not providing enough web information regarding his reporting on the Sandy Hook school shooting in 2012.
As a result of his repeated false claims that the mass shooting was a “hoax,” Jones is currently on trial in Connecticut to determine how much compensation he must pay to the families of several victims of the 2012 massacre.
The Google Analytics data and product sales were intended to be connected, according to the families’ attorneys. Jones provided data up to June 2019 but withheld information from the previous three years.
Judge Barbara Bellis penalised Jones for failing to fulfil his discovery obligations, calling it “stunningly cavalier.” She also forbade his attorneys from making the claim that he didn’t make money from his reporting on the Sandy Hook shooting.
In Connecticut Superior Court, Bellis stated, “This stunningly cavalier attitude with respect to their discovery obligations is what originally caused the default.”
The defendants have continuously engaged in slow-moving and obstructionist discovery tactics from the start of these proceedings up to the trial, the judge said.
On Tuesday, Jones was nowhere to be found at the Waterbury, Connecticut, courthouse. Families of the victims and members of the media were present in large numbers in the courtroom. A group of about 20 relatives arrived together fifteen minutes prior to the trial.
A lone female protester outside put up a banner that said, “Alex Jones karma is a bitch,” about an hour before the trial began.
The parents of 6-year-old Jesse Lewis, one of the 26 people murdered in the school shooting, sued Jones for defamation after he falsely claimed the incident was a fabrication, and a Texas jury last month ordered Jones to pay almost $50 million to them.
Jones and his business, Free Speech Systems, were held accountable by Bellis in 2021 for defaming 15 claimants.
The plaintiffs accuse Jones of intentionally causing them emotional pain in their defamation lawsuit against him.
Families of many victims of the Sandy Hook tragedy and one FBI agent were among the plaintiffs in three distinct cases that have been merged and were present at the Connecticut trial.
According to the Associated Press, the plaintiffs allege that since Jones has maintained that the massacre was a hoax, his supporters have harassed them in person, threatened them with death, and made derogatory remarks about them online.
Jones acknowledged the Sandy Hook shooting to be 100% real during his initial defamation trial in Texas and apologised for upsetting the victims’ families, but he later reneged on his apology in an interview, saying “I don’t apologise anymore. I’m done.”