12/21/2023 0 Comments Hand of fate trial by combatAbout one month later, Jones again lost in separate suits filed by the families of eight other victims. In September, a Travis County judge found Jones liable for defamation in lawsuits filed by two families of Sandy Hook victims. On April 15, Jones and his companies were ordered to pay more than $1 million in fines for his refusal to hand over pretrial information. Jones has attempted to slow or obstruct legal proceedings in the Sandy Hook defamation suits by refusing to follow court orders to turn over documents, filing late settlement offers and, in one instance, claiming that a medical problem that included vertigo prevented him from appearing in court. A lawsuit from eight other families soon followed. In April 2018, after facing years of harassment from Jones’ fans, Pozner Noah’s mother, Veronique De La Rosa and Neil Heslin, the father of 6-year-old victim Jesse Lewis, filed defamation lawsuits against Jones in Austin. That was really crossing a rubicon,” Williamson said. Jones' previous falsehoods “are not harmless theories, but they did not single out individual vulnerable people the way he did with Sandy Hook. Last: Arielle Pozner at the grave site of her twin brother, who died in the 2012 Sandy Hook shooting. Middle: Lenny Pozner and his former wife Veronique De La Rosa. And of course, they responded and replied and said, ‘No, no, we’re not denying the tragedy,’ and totally lied, and continued to do their thing.”įirst: Noah Pozner and his twin sister, Arielle, at kindergarten graduation. “I asked them to be more responsible with this particular tragedy that affects me personally. “I called them out on it very early on, and I was very polite about it,” Pozner said. Only weeks after the 2012 shooting, Pozner remembers reaching out to Infowars by email to ask the outlet to stop labeling the shooting as a government hoax to take away Americans’ guns. Jones even shared addresses, maps and personal information associated with the families of Sandy Hook victims, including revealing information about Pozner. In one 2015 show, Jones told his listeners, “Sandy Hook is synthetic, completely fake, with actors, in my view, manufactured.” In other episodes, he mocked Sandy Hook parents weeping over the deaths of their children. People stop to look at a makeshift memorial at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut, two weeks after a gunman shot and killed 20 students and six adults in the school on Dec. Williamson said Jones was able to foresee how disaffected individuals who were also highly distrustful of the government could propel Trump to a primary victory. Jones likely played an outsized role in Trump’s election, according to Elizabeth Williamson, author of “ Sandy Hook: An American Tragedy and the Battle for Truth.” The book investigates how the shooting warped into an attack on the truth from Jones and online conspiracy theorists. “Your reputation is amazing,” Trump told Jones on his show. Trump received support from Jones during his 2016 presidential campaign.įormer Trump adviser and Republican strategist Roger Stone was a paid Infowars host in 2015, and Stone connected Jones with Trump for an Infowars interview in December that year in which the soon-to-be president lauded Jones. 5, 2020, to protest the early results of that year’s presidential election. Jones speaks to supporters of former President Donald Trump who gathered in Phoenix on Nov. government has meddled with water supplies and the weather, the COVID-19 pandemic was planned, and Bill Gates is a master eugenicist working to control world populations. to share his conspiracy theories with his millions of followers. Jones has used Infowars - his primary media company that airs shows he claims are syndicated on radio stations across the U.S. Neither Jones nor his company Infowars responded to multiple requests for comment for this story. Close observers of his operations say the fate of the state’s most infamous misinformation peddler is more uncertain than ever. Along with a sweeping ban on social media, the loss of a fawning president and looming legal penalties, Jones’ troubles have weakened his once massive reach and influence. While the Chapter 11 filings may be part of Jones’ legal strategy to obstruct court proceedings - he used them to delay his Austin jury trial, and Sandy Hook parents pushed to dismiss them last week - they’re also the latest development in Jones’ downswing from his spot at the top of far-right media. The next day, Jones told his listeners he was “totally maxed out” financially. Juries in the cases still have to decide how much Jones must pay the victims, but on April 17, three of Jones’ companies - Infowars, Prison Planet TV and IW Health - filed for bankruptcy. In the past year, Jones has lost all the defamation lawsuits filed by 10 families of Sandy Hook victims, including Pozner’s.
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