A day earlier, Alex Jones’ attorney said he might miss the trial due to some “medical issue” but he appeared in Texas court for the start of his defamation trial on the Sandy Hook shooting.
The jury will hear testimony and decide how much the Infowars host and conspiracy theorist Alex Jone must pay the parents for telling the audience that one of the deadliest classroom shootings was a “hoax.”
Alex’s attorney F. Andino Reynal said during the jury selection on Monday, “Alex, you may have noticed, is not here, like the plaintiffs. He may not be here through parts of the trial.” He added that Alex “has medical issues” and “has no obligation to be here.”
The Connecticut judge issued Jones an escalating $25,000 daily fine for not appearing for court-ordered depositions in March. At that time, his attorney provided a doctor’s note on his “acute medical issues that were time-sensitive and potentially serious.”
Twenty children and six teachers were killed during the shooting. Jone has already been banned from Youtube, Facebook, and Spotify for violating hate-speech policies.
Two families have only been involved in the trial, but the damages are yet to be awarded to other families of the 2012 massacre. Attorneys for the families have suggested seeking $100 million or more in compensatory and punitive damages.
The families of the eight victims and an FBI agent who responded to the school are suing Alex and his company, Free Speech Systems. During an April deposition, Alex replied that he was not responsible for the suffering of Sandy Hook parents.
Bankston, the victim’s family lawyer, said in the trial, “Mr. Jones is going to keep repeating the same false claims. He intended to inflict emotional distress, And now he wants to pay a dollar for it.”
Jone’s attorney, in return, said, “Alex Jones has apologized repeatedly for the coverage he gave; he trusted people he shouldn’t have trusted. He regrets that now, and he has said so, he was looking at the world through dirty glasses, and if you look at the world through dirty glasses, everything is dirty. “
Let us see what the jury decides in the trial and how much he has to pay for the victim’s families.