The jig is up for Alex Jones. On Monday, in a rare legal move, Judge Maya Guerra Gamble issued default judgments in two of several lawsuits that have been filed against the incendiary Infowars founder by family members of victims of the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting, which left 26 people—including 20 children between the ages of six and seven years old—dead. For his part, Jones has repeatedly (and falsely) claimed that the 2012 tragedy was nothing more than a piece of performance art, calling the event a “false flag” hoax and describing the children as “crisis actors.”
As HuffPost reports, Jones was called out by Gamble after failing to produce discovery records, including company emails, in two of several ongoing suits against the man who has relished his reputation as America’s foremost conspiracy theorist. Though Jones has had several years to turn this information over, he has outright refused, which didn’t sit well with the judge. While Jones’ lawyer (the seventh one he’s worked with by the way) told the Austin-American Statesman that a default judgment against Jones would be “hugely excessive,” Gamble wasn’t hearing it, and didn’t see any other way, writing the following:
“[I]n considering whether lesser remedies would be effective, this Court has also considered Defendants’ general bad faith approach to litigation, Mr. Jones’ public threats, and Mr. Jones’ professed belief that these proceedings are ‘show trials.’”
The Daily Beast reported that Gamble also noted how, “An escalating series of judicial admonishments, monetary penalties, and non-dispositive sanctions have all been ineffective at deterring the abuse.” Though Jones has since decried his earlier public stance and said that he does believe the shootings were real, it was a case of too little too late. He’ll now be at the mercy of a jury, which will be convened and asked to determine how much he will need to pay.
Things must have seemed so much easier back in January for Jones, when he proudly took credit for inciting the riot on the Capitol.
(Via HuffPost)