Judge indicts the entire MAGA movement
Conspiracy marketer Alex Jones gets no sympathy from me. But watching Texas District Court Judge Maya Gamble have to address him like a child in the Sandy Hook defamation trial Wednesday might get someone else there. The man is a trainwreck. He is being sued by Sandy Hook families for lies that made their lives an even darker hell after the murder of their children. His claims that the murders were staged led to harasment of the victims’ families and death threats.
Jones seems not to have any understanding of what a trial is or how it works. It is a search for truth. For Jones, truth is whatever he thinks and says on his Infowars show. In the real world, it is not.
“This is not your show,” an exasperated Gamble told Jones.
“You believe everything you say is true, but it isn’t,” Gamble admonished Jones. “Your beliefs do not make something true.”
“Don’t talk,” Gamble said when Jones tried again to interrupt. The man likes to hear himself talk and cannot keep his mouth shut even to save himself. He repeatedly portrayed himself as a victim. Very, very MAGA.
Jones repeatedly went off topic, wandered into hearsay (Gamble had to explain what hearsay is and why it is not fact) and, rather than answering specific questions, Jones self-justified. His testimony in his own defense was a disaster.
Lawyers for Alex Jones appeared to have accidentally sent over the entire contents of the Infowars founder’s phone to the lawyers for the plaintiffs in his defamation trial, according to court proceedings Wednesday.
Mark Bankston, a lawyer for the parents of one of the children killed in the 2012 Sandy Hook Elementary School massacre and who are now suing Jones, said during the proceedings that “12 days ago, his [Jones’] attorneys messed up and sent me a digital copy of every text” and email from Jones’ phone.
After Bankston told Jones that the Sandy Hook parents’ legal team had access to years of his texts and emails, he asked Jones, “Do you know what perjury is?”
No more than he does hearsay.
Several days in 2018, Infowars was bringing in $800,000 per day selling conspiracy theories and nutritional supplements.
Finally, after demonstrating that Jones had lied about his texts about the Sandy Hook massacre, plaintiffs’ attorney Mark Bankston gave up, noting that asking further questions of Jones would not have any point.
Trump and MAGAstan are so far down the rabbit hole they’ve dug that truth cannot reach them. Perhaps Judge Gamble can explain epistemic closure to Jones when the jury returns its verdict.
Deliberations began late Wednesday.
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