DNY59/iStock(FAIRFIELD, Conn.) — A superior court judge on Wednesday ordered Infowars host Alex Jones to undergo a sworn deposition as part of a defamation lawsuit brought against him by the families of some of those killed in the 2012 mass shooting at an elementary school in Connecticut.
Judge Barbara Bellis of the Fairfield Judicial District Superior Court ruled that the plaintiffs’ attorneys can depose Jones as well as three other defendants in the case for a total of 19 hours. The ruling comes one month after Bellis granted the families’ discovery requests, allowing them access to, among other things, Infowars’ internal marketing and financial documents.
Jones’ defense attorney did not immediately respond to ABC News’ request for comment Thursday.
The plaintiffs in the case include the immediate family members of four first-grade children and two educators who were among the 26 people shot and killed at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut, on Dec. 14, 2012.
They allege that Jones, his Infowars website and other business entities and certain individuals connected to him “have persistently perpetuated a monstrous, unspeakable lie: that the Sandy Hook shooting was staged, and that the families who lost loved ones that day are actors who faked their relatives’ deaths,” according to the legal complaint, initially filed in May 2018.
“Jones is the chief amplifier for a group that has worked in concert to create and propagate loathsome, false narratives about the Sandy Hook shootings and its victims, and promote their harassment and abuse,” the complaint states.
“Jones has accused Sandy Hook families, who are readily identifiable, of faking their loved ones’ deaths, and insisted that the children killed that day are actually alive,” the complaint adds. “Jones has deliberately employed these false narratives about the Sandy Hook shooting, the victims, and their families as part of a marketing scheme that has brought him and his business entities tens of millions of dollars per year.”
Jones has sought to dismiss the defamation lawsuit, saying he “firmly believes” the mass shooting was not a hoax and that he is exercising his First Amendment rights by allowing others on his show to state their opinions that it didn’t happen.
“Plaintiffs suffered a horrible tragedy,” his defense attorney, Jay Wolman, wrote in a Nov. 21 motion to dismiss the lawsuit. “Alex Jones and Infowars are not responsible for this tragedy. To punish them for First Amendment protected speech on this matter of public concern will not bring back the lives lost.”
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