For a man so miffed that he’s about to face a “kangaroo court,” Alex Jones seems to be doing his best to make fun of the ongoing defamation lawsuit filed against him by the parents of Sandy Hook.
The final afternoon of scheduled testimony in Jones’ two-week trial got off to a rocky start Tuesday, with the judge presiding over the case in Austin reprimanding the famous conspiracy theorist for appearing to chew on something in court.
“Spit out your gum, Mr. Jones,” said Judge Maya Guerra Gamble, glaring at Jones from behind the bench.
“That’s not chewing gum,” the far-right broadcaster immediately replied. Jones claims he had a tooth pulled late last month and that he massaged the hole in his mouth with his tongue.
“Do you want me to show you?” he asked and leaned down.
“…I don’t want to see the inside of your mouth,” Gamble said, urging him to “sit down.”
The brief conversation came after a morning of emotional testimony from plaintiff Neil Heslin, the father of 6-year-old Sandy Hook massacre victim Jesse Lewis. Heslin and Lewis’ mother, Scarlett Lewis, is seeking at least $150 million from Jones and his media company Free Speech Systems in damages. (Free Speech Systems filed for federal bankruptcy protection last week, according to the Austin American-Statesman, though that is not expected to affect the process.)
The parents alleged in their 2018 lawsuit that Jones falsely claimed the massacre was a government-orchestrated hoax, dragging them — and other Sandy Hook families — through years of harassment and pain.
“I can’t even describe the last nine and a half years, the hell that I and others have had to go through because of the recklessness and negligence of Alex Jones,” Heslin said.
Jones was not present in court during Heslin’s testimony, the Associated Press reported. Heslin criticized his absence, calling it “cowardly”.
“Today is very important for me and it’s been a long time coming … to confront Alex Jones for what he said and did to me. To restore my son’s honor and legacy,” he said.
Jones went so far as to attack the families from afar, calling them “pawns” in an episode of his show Infowars that aired Tuesday, according to Media Matters for America.
Later in the episode, an embittered Jones lashed out at Gamble and the lawyers representing Louis’ parents, calling them “caricatures of what you’d imagine in some alternate universe of goblin dwarves.”
“It’s demonic,” he added. “They all act demonically possessed. The judge, the lawyers. It’s surreal to be around them. And it makes you feel sorry for them because these people are devoted to the occult ideology of the new world order.
Footage of the episode was presented by the prosecution in court later that day while Scarlett Lewis was in the stand. Asked how she felt about the clip, she turned her gaze to Jones, who had arrived at the Texas courthouse at the time.
“It’s terrifying. Terrifying. Terrifying,” she said, according to the Independent.
Jones, who tried to frame the complaint against him as an attack on his First Amendment rights, had stormed the courtroom after the morning hearing. A piece of tape covering his mouth had the phrase “Save the 1st”.
In front of reporters outside, Jones lashed out at Judge Gamble, accusing her of rigging the trial. “All I did was speculate and ask questions – I’m entitled to do that,” he fumed.
Later Tuesday, Jones himself took the stand. Asked by his lawyer F. Andino Reynal how he was feeling, he replied: “Actually, I feel good. Because I get a chance – for the first time – to say what’s really going on, instead of the high-powered law firms in the corporate media manipulating what I’ve actually done.”
The only witness for the defense, Jones almost immediately fell out with Gamble again, complaining that Lewis had been allowed to “monologue” and he had not.
Under further questioning from Reynal, Jones quickly stated that he “never tried to intentionally hurt” Lewis and Heslin. He also jumped at the chance to challenge the introduction of the Infowars clip, protesting that it was “not fair” that the footage had been cut down to less than a minute.
Reynal, reportedly the eleventh attorney to officially represent Jones in the case, had to restrain his client as he veered dangerously close to tinfoil hat territory. “Let’s slow down a little bit,” the lawyer said after Jones testified that he viewed his work as a means of revealing “the matrix” to his audience.
(Raynal himself was reprimanded by Gamble several times during the trial, including at least twice for chewing gum in her courtroom, according to a Texas Monthly reporter. On another occasion, he had to apologize after using his middle finger, to get Mark Bankston, the prosecuting attorney, out of Gamble’s sight.)
Less than an hour into his testimony, Jones was coughing so often that Gamble gave him a lozenge. He thanked her.
“This is an exception to courtroom food [rule]Gamble said with a weak laugh.
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