A wave of deplatforming efforts earlier this year did a great deal to deflate conspiracist and MAGA windbag Alex Jones of Inforwars infamy. But if there’s one thing he still excels at, it’s getting taken to court.
This time the plaintiff is one Scarlett Lewis, the mother of a victim in 2012's tragic Sandy Hook shooting—an incident Jones did much to attempt to undermine and discredit, “mocking the families as liars and accusing them of a sinister conspiracy,” as the suit puts it.
The child’s father, Neil Heslin, sued Infowars and Jones back in April for defamation. Other parties pursuing legal action against Jones include two other parents of Sandy Hook Victims (Leonard Pozner and Veronique De La Rosa), the parent of a Marjory Stoneman Douglas victim (Marcel Fontaine), a witness (Brennan Gilmore) to the violent attack in Charlottesville that led to the death of Heather Heyer, Pepe the Frog creator Matt Furie, and his own ex-wife (Kelly Jones), to name a few.
The Trump years have done much to raise Jones’s profile, so in the likely event he was outside your personal purview when Sandy Hook took place, the suit helpfully reprints several excerpts from the ambling bullshit carnival that is Infowars:
Folks, we’ve got video of Anderson Cooper with clear blue-screen out there. [Shaking head]. He’s not there in the town square. We got people clearly coming up and laughing and then doing the fake crying. We’ve clearly got people where it’s actors playing different parts for different people, the building bulldozed, covering up everything. Adam Lanza trying to get guns five times we’re told. The witnesses not saying it was him...I’ve looked at it and undoubtedly, there’s a cover-up, there’s actors, they’re manipulating, they’ve been caught lying, and they were pre-planning before it and rolled out with it.
Harmful though this years-long campaign against the veracity of the shooting was, it reads as comparatively tame against Infowars’s more current crop of pet projects—which have ranged from promoting the Qanon conspiracy to pushing the unfounded belief in a child sex trafficking dungeon hidden beneath a pizza restaurant.
In a statement, Ms. Lewis wrote that “After learning that my family was specifically targeted in Mr. Jones’ campaign of attacks, I have struggled with how best to address the profound distress he has inflicted. In the end, I have decided that I must join those who are standing up against Mr. Jones and his despicable actions.”
We’ve reached out for comment from Infowars.
Read the full suit below: