The detective who led the Sandy Hook Elementary School attack investigation testified Tuesday that there are three types of deniers.
“They were the most dangerous. That’s where we put Alex Jones,” Connecticut State Police Detective Daniel Jewiss told the jury on the first day of testimony in a Texas trial to determine how much Jones, who hosts Infowars, owes for defaming the parents of one of the children who died in the deadliest school shooting in American history.
Jones repeatedly “lied and attacked the parents of murdered children” when he told his Infowars audience that the shooting was a hoax, Bankston said. He created a “massive campaign of lies” and recruited “wild extremists from the fringes of the internet … who were as cruel as Mr. Jones wanted them to be” to the families of the 20 first-graders and six educators who were killed, the lawyer said.
During the defence’s opening remarks, Jones’ lawyer Andino Reynal called Jones one of the “most polarizing figures in this nation,” who made statements about Sandy Hook “that we don’t dispute were wrong.” But he said Jones has already been punished for those statements when he was kicked off of Facebook, YouTube, Spotify and Twitter for violating their hate speech policies.
“Alex Jones was wrong to believe these people, but he didn’t do it out of spite. He did it because he believed it. … He believed a citizen has a right to get on Infowars and talk about what their questions are,” Reynal said.Article content“I believe in his right to say it, and I believe in every American’s right to choose what they watch, and listen to, and believe,” Reynal said.
The jury could deal Jones a major financial blow that would put his constellation of conspiracy peddling businesses into deeper jeopardy. In addition to being banned from major social media platforms, he claims he’s millions of dollars in debt — a claim the plaintiffs reject. Jones has since acknowledged that the shooting took place. During a deposition in April, Jones insisted he wasn’t responsible for the suffering that Sandy Hook parents say they have endured because of the hoax conspiracy, including death threats and harassment by Jones’ followers.
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