The presiding judge suggested that Jones could be arrested if he does not appear in court on Thursday.
Infowars host and conspiracy theorist Alex Jones missed a court-ordered deposition on Wednesday.
As LegalReader.com has reported before, Jones is facing a massive defamation lawsuit, filed by the relatives of people who were killed or injured in the 2012 Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting.
Jones garnered nationwide criticism—and notoriety—when he publicly proclaimed that the shooting was a hoax.
According to Jones and his supporters, the federal government paid “crisis actors” to fake a mass shooting.
The government’s plan, Jones claimed, was to generate enough public outrage to begin stripping Americans of their Second Amendment protections.
Jones later revised his theory and said that a shooting had actually occurred, but that the shooting was planned, executed, or other influenced by far-left political leaders and strategists.
An attorney for Jones said that the conspiracy theorist missed the appointment for undisclosed medical reasons.
Jones, adds ABC News, was supposed to have testified on Wednesday and Thursday in Austin, Texas, where Infowars is based.
Connecticut Superior Court Judge Barbara Bellis has already found Jones liable for damages. A trial, tentatively scheduled for August, will determine how much Jones will have to pay the Sandy Hook families.
After Jones failed to show up to the Wednesday deposition, Bellis asked lawyers to submit briefs on whether she can issue an arrest order to have Jones taken into court if he fails to attend.
Bellis said that if Jones’s undisclosed medical condition prevents him from testifying on Thursday, he must submit documentation of his illness.
If Bellis does not issue an arrest order, Chris Mattei—an attorney for the plaintiffs—said he will seek a subpoena in Texas.
An attorney for Jones told The Associated Press that Jones’s decision to testify on Thursday will be made by his doctors.
Speaking at a news conference, Mattei said it is evident that Jones is trying to avoid accountability.
“What is clear is that this notion that Mr. Jones is responsibly complying with some unidentified physician’s recommendation that he be at home under his physician’s care is completely bogus — dropped on the court and the plaintiffs less than two days before he’s to be deposed for the first time in a case that’s been pending since 2018,” Mattei said on Tuesday.
“This, in our view, was a cowardly display intended to cheat the plaintiffs of their right to put him under oath and ask him questions about why, over the course of so many years, he lied about them, he lied about the loved ones that they lost at Sandy Hook and why he unleashed a barrage of harassment over many years that continues to this day,” Mattei said.
Sources
Alex Jones misses deposition again. He’s ordered to answer questions Thursday
Newtown families: Alex Jones fails to show up for deposition
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