In Alex Jones’ damages trial, the attorney for the Sandy Hook parents testified on Wednesday that Jones’ lawyer sent him texts and emails from Jones’ phone over a number of years.
Alex Jones has already been found liable for defamation cases brought by the families of the victims after repeatedly falsely claiming that the Sandy Hook shooting was a fake.
How much Jones owes the parents of the victims after making fraudulent statements in public will be decided by the Texas jury in the damages trial.
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“12 days ago, your attorneys messed up and sent me an entire digital copy of your entire cell phone with every text message you’ve sent for the past two years … and that is how I know you lied to me when you said you didn’t have text messages about Sandy Hook,” said Mark Bankston, the attorney for Sandy Hook victims’ families, Wednesday in court.
“You know what perjury is, right?” he said. “You testified under oath previously that you personally searched your phone for the phrase ‘Sandy Hook’ and there were no messages.”
“We asked for all emails and you told us [under oath] you don’t use email and there are no emails about Sandy Hook,” Bankston continued. Jones responded by saying he quit using email before Sandy Hook.
“There are emails that you’ve sent to your lawyers, your staff and others concerning your business operations that we requested for, Sandy Hook, other topics that have been requested in this lawsuit,” Bankston said after showing Jones a document with his email address.
Judge Maya Guerra Gamble of the Travis County District Court, who is presiding over the case, told jurors the contents of Jones’ phone were not “properly turned over when it should have been.”
The startling information came to light during a conversation in court between Jones and Mark Bankston, a lawyer for the parents of a six-year-old boy murdered in the attack in 2012. Bankston was representing the parents.
A copy of a text message Bankston got criticizing his platform’s coverage of the coronavirus in 2020 and equating it to his unfounded idea that the Sandy Hook murders were staged was given to the Infowars host.
This was extremely bad for Jones since he had claimed under oath in a deposition that he had no texts mentioning the Sandy Hook shooting on his phone.
