Sandy Hook families gain victory in lawsuit against conspiracy theorist Alex Jones

A judge ruled the families must receive access to internal marketing and financial documents at Infowars

The families of victims killed at the 2012 Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting have gained a legal victory against Alex Jones and his far-right conspiracy site InfoWars.

A judge ruled on Friday that the six families must receive access to internal marketing and financial documents at the internet and radio show Infowars which is known for its false and outlandish conspiracy theories.

Jones, who has been dubbed America’s leading conspiracy theorist and a prominent voice of the alt-right movement in the US, is the founder of the site which has received over a billion views and 2.2 million subscribers.

The defamation lawsuit alleges that Jones has pushed 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”.

A gunman killed 20 young children and six adults at Sandy Hook elementary school in Newtown, Connecticut, on 14 December 2012 in what was the fourth-deadliest mass shooting by a single person in US history.

Jones helped spread the idea that grieving relatives of those victims were paid “crisis actors”.

The suit argued that pushing fake stories was essential to the business model of Infowars, which sells products including dietary supplements, survivalist gear and gun paraphernalia.

The complaint said Infowars profits by fuelling paranoia to accumulate more followers, to whom it is then able to sell more products.

A judge is scheduled to choose next week whether the families’ lawyers can depose Jones, who lives in Travis County in Texas.

The plaintiffs in the lawsuit are relatives of five children and three adults who were killed, and one FBI agent who responded to the shooting. Their complaint said the families have faced “physical confrontation and harassment, death threats, and a sustained barrage of harassment and verbal assault on social media”.

The suit said: “They have confronted strange individuals videotaping them and their children. Some have moved to undisclosed locations to avoid this harassment.”

“From the beginning, we have alleged that Alex Jones and his financial network trafficked in lies and hate in order to profit from the grief of Sandy Hook families,” Chris Mattei, a lawyer representing the families, said in a statement on Friday. “That is what we intend to prove, and today’s ruling advances our effort.”

According to the statement, the judge, of the Connecticut Superior Court, ruled Jones would have to surrender documents – including letters, memos, emails and text messages – that concern the business plan or marketing strategies of Infowars, the shooting at Sandy Hook, crisis actors or mass shootings in general.

Jones has previously argued defamation cases against him should be dismissed because he was acting as a journalist while covering the Sandy Hook shooting, comparing himself to the veteran journalists Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein, who helped break the Watergate scandal.

Marc Randazza, a lawyer for Jones, said the defence was considering appealing the judge’s decision.

He said Jones had investigated claims that the Sandy Hook massacre was a hoax and then determined it was not. “The allegation that he somehow spun up a harassment campaign against the parents is a lie,” he said.

“Plaintiffs suffered a horrible tragedy,” Jay Wolman, another lawyer for Jones, said in a 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.”

Jones is famed for propagating far-fetched and erroneous conspiracy theories.

He suggested the 911 attacks were an inside job and that the baseless reports about Hillary Clinton being part of a Washington pizzeria child sex abuse ring warrant serious investigation. Jones, who has said he believes Ms Clinton is a genuine avatar of Satan, has also claimed the US government puts chemicals into the water supply to turn people gay so they do not have children.

Apple, Facebook, YouTube and other services have removed Infowars content from their platforms for breaching policies on hate speech, child endangerment and inciting violence.

Immediately after Donald Trump was elected, Jones said the president called him to thank him for his help in getting elected.

In a clip posted on his website, he said: “He said, ‘Listen, Alex, I just talked to the kings and the queens of the world. I want to thank you, your audience.”

The Republican billionaire has previously called Jones a “nice guy” and appeared on his Infowars show in December 2015. “Your reputation is amazing,” Mr Trump said. “I will not let you down. You will be very, very impressed, I hope. And I think we’ll be speaking a lot.”