Alex Jones had to sit for a deposition about Sandy Hook Elementary School conspiracy theories. The plaintiffs, families of five children and two adults who were murdered in Newtown, Connecticut in 2012, previously sued Jones for defamation due to his “years-long campaign of abusive and outrageous false statements in which Jones and the other defendants have developed, amplified and perpetuated claims that the Sandy Hook massacre was staged and that the 26 families who lost loved ones that day are paid actors who faked their relative’s deaths.”
Jeremy Richman and his wife Jennifer Hensel are two of the named plaintiffs. Richman, 49, took his own life on Monday. Their daughter Avielle was one of the victims of the massacre.
The plaintiffs’ lawyers posted the footage (in two parts) to YouTube on Friday. Here were some of the most awkward moments from hours and hours of Jones sitting in front of a camera.
1. Plaintiff’s lawyer tells Jones’ attorneys to stop tag-teaming him (21:45, Part I)
Mark Enoch, an attorney for the Infowars founder, interjected with a question during the deposition, but Sandy Hook parent Scarlett Lewis‘s attorney Mark Bankston told him to be quiet and leave it up to his co-counsel Robert Barnes. (Barnes has written columns for Law&Crime in the past.)
“First of all, there’s only going to be one lawyer defending this deposition, Mr. Enoch, and you’ve already chosen it,” Bankston said. “No, Mr. Enoch, there will be one lawyer speaking on the record. There is one lawyer defending the deposition. I am not being tag-teamed by the two of you, and so I would appreciate it if you kept your mouth shut for this deposition. Let Mr. Barnes defend the deposition.”
2. Jones said he didn’t recognize the date of the shooting (53:40, Part I)
Bankston showed Jones a document, and asked him if he had ever seen it before. The defendant said no.
BANKSTON: You’ll see at the top it has a time stamp. 12/14/12.JONES: Yes.BANKSTON: You know that’s the date of Sandy Hook, right?JONES: I don’t know.BANKSTON: You don’t know that?JONES: Was that the day?BANKSTON: It is.
The Sandy Hook shooting happened December 14, 2012. Police said 20-year-old Adam Lanza opened fire at the elementary school, killing 20 children and six adults. The suspect also killed his mother and committed suicide.
Jones said during his deposition that Sandy Hook comprised a very small portion of Infowars coverage, and repeatedly said during his testimony that he was reporting what other people were saying about the event.
3. Jones insisted he never made fun of Sandy Hook parents crying (1:08:33, Part I)
Bankston said Jones made “mocking imitations of Sandy Hook parents crying.” Jones said he didn’t. The plaintiff played footage of Jones him talking about the Sandy Hook parents.
In one of videos, Jones said that a father of one of the victims did “classic acting training where he’s laughing and joking, and they say, ‘hey, we’re live,’ and he goes, ‘Oh.’ [Begins to fake cry.] And maybe that’s real. I’m sure it is.”
Jones said he wasn’t mocking the parents. He was “showing what people were questioning” and argued that Bankston was projecting by accusing him of “mocking.” Jones insisted he was just showing what the parent did.
The lawyer said, however, that this video showed Jones supporting a conspiracy that the parents were actors. Jones insisted he was covering “the Internet” talking about how people looked like actors.
4. “You want to put it on TV!” (1:17:20, Part I)
Barnes often objected to the “form” of Bankston’s questions. That bubbled up about mid-way through the deposition, and he suggested the plaintiff’s lawyer was “harassing” Jones.
“This is for TV, and PR, not for a legitimate suit,” he said. “That’s what this. That’s all this is. You want to put it on TV. This is just a show, and it’s a bad show at that.”
He said Bankston was putting words in Jones’ mouth when a question wasn’t even asked.
“Do you maybe want to take a break so you can have a few breaths?” asked Bankston. “Yeah, you might need to do that.”
“Yeah, absolutely,” said Barnes. “And maybe you can go back, and read how to ask people questions.”
They took a break.
5. Jones said he would do a better job covering Sandy Hook if he could do it again (32:00, Part II)
A running theme in the deposition: Jones said he wasn’t as well versed in the Sandy Hook case as others. He didn’t “live, eat, and breathe this stuff,” he said.
“If I had it all over to do, I would have done a better job,” he said. “I didn’t do it on purpose to be malicious.” He said he wanted to distance himself from the Sandy Hook subject years ago, but described it as a “tar baby” dragging him back in with new developments.
“I’m sick of it,” he said. “That’s why I made so many apologies and statements that I’m sorry I was even ever covering it because I don’t want it to be my identity. I’m tired of it.”
6. “Do you know what an office is?” (35:50, Part II)
Bankston asked Jones if Infowars LLC ever had an office.
“I really don’t understand,” said Jones. “I don’t know what you’re getting at.”
“Do you know what an office is?” asked the lawyer.
Jones clarified that he meant that he didn’t know why Bankston would ask if a corporation had an office. He eventually declined to answer the question because he didn’t want to be inaccurate.
7. Jones said he no longer thinks everything is staged (1:12:00, Part II)
“So long before these lawsuits I said that in the past I thought everything was a conspiracy, and I would kind of get into that mass group think of the communities that were out there saying that, so now I see that it’s more in the middle,” he said. “So that’s where I stand.”
Jones said that lies spread in the media and government informed his initial belief that everything was a false flag operation.
He also said it was “almost [like he] had […] a form of psychosis back in the past where I basically thought everything was staged, even though I’m now learning a lot of times things aren’t staged.”
[Screengrab via Kaster Lynch Farrar & Ball LLP]