Alex Jones Must Face Lawsuit By Jewish Sandy Hook Parents
Graphic by Angelie Zaslavsky
Conspiracy theorist Alex Jones lost a bid to dismiss a defamation lawsuit brought against him by the parents of a boy killed in the 2012 Sandy Hook school massacre, according to court documents released on Thursday.
Judge Scott Jenkins in Travis County, Texas, where Jones lives, said Jones’ motion to dismiss the lawsuit was “in all respects denied,” court papers showed.
Jones has used his media platform Infowars to call the mass shooting at a Connecticut elementary school that killed 26 people a hoax, and suggested a political cover-up took place by left-wing forces seeking to take advantage of the shooting to promote gun control.
Leonard Pozner and Veronique De La Rosa, whose 6-year-old son Noah was murdered at Sandy Hook, said they sued because they were harassed and forced to move seven times after Jones called them liars and frauds, according to court documents.
Jones faces two other defamation cases related to Sandy Hook and a separate defamation lawsuit for wrongly identifying a man as the gunman who killed 17 people at a high school in Parkland, Florida in February.
Mark Enoch, a lawyer for Jones, told the court on Thursday in a hearing for one of the defamation suits that his client is dispensing political speech and is protected by the Constitution’s First Amendment.
“It is an all-out campaign to silence my client,” Enoch said.
This is a moment of great uncertainty. Here’s what you can do about it.
We hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, we’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s independent Jewish news. All donations are still being matched by the Forward Board - up to $100,000 until April 24.
This is a moment of great uncertainty for the news media, for the Jewish people, and for our sacred democracy. It is a time of confusion and declining trust in public institutions. An era in which we need humans to report facts, conduct investigations that hold power to account, tell stories that matter and share honest discourse on all that divides us.
With no paywall or subscriptions, the Forward is entirely supported by readers like you. Every dollar you give is invested in the future of the Forward — and telling the American Jewish story fully and fairly.
The Forward doesn’t rely on funding from institutions like governments or your local Jewish federation. There are thousands of readers like you who give us $18 or $36 or $100 each month or year.
Support our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.
