Alex Jones’ lawyers appeared to have accidentally sent the entire contents of the Infowars founder’s phone to plaintiffs’ lawyers in his defamation trial, according to court proceedings Wednesday.
Mark Bankston, lawyer for the parents of one of the children killed in the 2012 Sandy Hook Elementary School massacre and who are now suing Jones, said during the proceeding that “12 days ago, his [Jones’] lawyers got it wrong and sent me a digital copy of every text” and an email from Jones’ phone.
After Bankston told Jones that the Sandy Hook parents’ legal team had access to years of his texts and emails, he asked Jones, “Do you know what perjury is?”
Bankston did not respond to a request for comment. A query to Infowars was not immediately returned. NBC News has not independently acquired or verified the authenticity of the messages discussed by Bankston during Wednesday’s proceedings.
Parents of Sandy Hook victims are suing Jones for $150 million in damages after Jones claimed the shooting was “synthetic,” a “false flag” and that the families of those who died were “crisis actors “.
Jones has since apologized, claiming that he has not personally published or endorsed Sandy Hook conspiracy theories in years. New texts revealed by Bankston on Wednesday appeared to show Jones signing off on more Sandy Hook conspiracy theories five years after the tragedy.
The phone documents also appeared to reveal Infowars’ hidden finances.
Bankston described several days in 2018 when Infowars made more than $800,000 a day. Jones did not dispute the veracity of the emails or the dollar figures, but said some of his highest profit days came during the week of CPAC, the conservative conference.
Before the trial, Jones said the highest figure his company ever made was $200,000 a day.
Minutes later, taking questions from the jury, Jones demanded a $2 million judgment in the case “it’s going to sink us.” Free Speech Systems, the parent company of Infowars, filed for bankruptcy in late July.
Jones had also previously claimed that being “deplatformed”, or permanently suspended from services such as Twitter and Facebook, had negatively affected the company’s results, comparing the situation to “prison”. Bankston said newly released financial documents show the opposite is true: The company made more money than ever after being banned from platforms like Facebook and YouTube in 2018.
“Well, after the deplatforming, your numbers keep getting better,” Bankston said.
Infowars is a private company and is not required to disclose financial records. The company largely makes money by selling food and emergency survival products and rebranded supplements like Infowars’ Brain Force Plus. Jones said during the test that some of the supplements are 100% sold and at one point he bragged about the quality of his supplements.
Neither Jones nor his lawyers appeared to know that lawyers for the Sandy Hook parents had access to Jones’ emails and texts. Bankston said he informed Jones’ lawyers about the accident 12 days ago.
At an open mic during a break, Bankston asked his fellow lawyers: “You know what nobody has thought of yet? What happens when that phone goes to law enforcement?”
Kevin Collier contributed.
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