Alex Jones trial - live: Jury begins deliberating in Infowars host’s second Sandy Hook hoax case
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The jury has finished its first full day of deliberation in Alex Jones’ second defamation damages trial over his lies about the Sandy Hook massacre.
Jurors convened to weigh the case on Friday after closing arguments the day before, where attorneys for the families of the Sandy Hook victims urged them to consider the enormous profits Jones had made from spreading conspiracy theories about the mass shooting when determining how much he should pay in damages.
“Every single one of these families were drowning in grief, and Alex Jones put his foot right on top of them,” attorney Christopher Mattei said.
Visitor numbers to Jones’ Infowars website spiked by more than 40 per cent after the December 2012 tragedy, Mr Mattei said.
He suggested a damages award of at least $550m, as Jones and Infowars had received an estimated 550 million views from their Sandy Hook hoax content on social media accounts from 2012 to 2018.
Meanwhile, Jones’ attorney Norm Pattis asked jurors to return a more measured verdict to help restore his client’s faith in “the system”.
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Alex Jones defamation trial set to resume
Welcome to day 14 of the Alex Jones trial.
We’re expecting to hear closing arguments from both sets of lawyers this morning before the jury begins its deliberations.
After Mr Jones’ no-show yesterday, attorneys spent most of the afternoon discussing the language the judge will use to instruct the jury when it weighs up how much it will award the families of the Sandy Hook victims.
Court is due to resume at 10am EST.
Newtown is done talking about Alex Jones
Alex Jones’ defamation trial is taking place in Waterbury, Connecticut, jless than 20 miles from where 20 students and six teachers were killed at Sandy Hook Elementary in Newtown in 2012.
The New York Times spoke to residents of Newtown, who said they remain angry at the conspiracy theorist for spreading blatant falsehoods that the mass shooting was a hoax.
“I think that most of the people in this town would like to forget about him, to forget his name,” one resident told the Times.
Court resumes with more legal discussions
Judge Barbara Bellis has taken her seat in the Fairfield District Superior Court in Waterbury Connecticut.
Discussions are resuming on what language she will use when directing the jury what to consider when awarding damages against Alex Jones.
Jury enters the courtroom - closing arguments begin
“At this point we are going to turn to the closing arguments of counsel,” Judge Barbara Bellis tells the jury.
Infowars 'set up for the purpose of spreading lies as far and wide as possible’
The Sandy Hook families’ attorney tells the jury that Infowars was set up “for the purpose of spreading lies as far and wide as possible”. Chris Mattei says in closing arguments that within hours of the Sandy Hook mass shootings in 2012, Alex Jones had begun spreading lies that the deaths were “synthetic”.
And that he is still doing it 10 years later, with an organisation that allows him to spread those lies “as far and wide as possible”.
Sandy Hook family attorney says Jones’ lies were driven by greed
“The more people see it, the more people come to the website, the more people come to the store,” says Chris Mattei.
‘Everything’s a war'
Mr Mattei tells the jury that “everything’s a war” for Jones.
The jury is being shown Infowars clips beginning days after the 2012 shooting.
Jones repeats false claims that mass shootings from Aurora to Sandy Hook were false flags designed to lead to firearms being banned.
Mr Mattei says he is training people to hate their own families, condition them that they are the “enemy of the American people”.
'Jones was readying to pounce’
Chris Mattei is playing an Infowars clip from just prior to the Sandy Hook mass shooting.
In it Jones states: “I am a precision guided heavy munition, coming in on top of you... so I get the barbed wire and everybody else comes in over me.”
Mattei said Jones deliberately targeted the Sandy Hook tragedy for his own commercial benefit.
“As these families were living out their daily lives, Alex Jones was readying to pounce.”
Infowars page views skyrocketed after Sandy Hook
Chris Mattei shows the jury a graphic of Infowars user numbers and page views between December 2012 when Sandy Hook occurred and January 2013.
“Look at the payoff, the spike,” he says.
“The engagement of the audience, that was a good thing for them.”
Infowars publish bogus story claiming ‘FBI Says No One Killed At Sandy Hook'
Two years on from the tragedy, Infowars publishes a bogus article stating: ‘FBI Says No One Killed At Sandy Hook’.
The story drove huge a spike in traffic to Infowars from social media, Mr Mattei tells the jury.
“Every single one of these families were drowning in grief, and Alex Jones put his foot right on top of them.”
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