Alex Jones Appears For Sandy Hook Lawsuit Deposition After Being Fined $75,000

Alex Jones has been trying to get out of a court-ordered deposition as part of his ongoing legal battle with several families of the victims of the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting. He was found in contempt of court starting last week and fined a total of $75,000 before eventually appearing for the deposition on Tuesday.

The Infowars host was found liable for defamation in this suit filed by several relatives of around 20 children and six educators killed in the shooting, which Jones has repeatedly claimed didn’t happen. Connecticut Judge Barbara Bellis served a rare “guilty by default” judgment on Jones because his lawyers reportedly didn’t comply with several records requests. He has also been found guilty by default in three other suits related to his Sandy Hook comments.

This deposition, which began Tuesday and wrapped on Wednesday, was initially set for March 23 and 24, but Jones failed to appear at the last minute, citing medical advice that he shouldn’t travel. They were later forced to admit that the doctor he heard this from was Dr. Benjamin Marble, who appeared on Infowars the same week peddling a conspiracy theory that Dr. Anthony Fauci “created” the COVID-19 virus.

Jones was subsequently found in contempt of court, and forced to pay $25,000 a day until he appeared in Connecticut for the deposition. It occurred at the law office Koskoff, Koskoff & Bieder in Bridgeport, Connecticut. The deposition was occasionally combative, which is unsurprising given Jones’ general attitude. He later claimed in a video recorded after the deposition that the families were “demonizing” him, and said, “these people want to put us in prison for free speech.”

In an episode of The Alex Jones Show transcribed by Media Matters recorded on March 31, Jones also made extremely inflammatory comments about Judge Bellis. “We got this judge up in Connecticut, if you could call it that – this thing has just cheated us every way, lied about us, said we didn’t give them this, sanctioned us for not giving them the ‘Sandy Hook Marketing.'”

Jones’ next trial is set for August and will determine the amount he must pay out to families. The families rejected Jones’ settlement offer of $120,000 per family which they called “a transparent and desperate attempt to escape a public reckoning.”