The Jan. 6 Select Committee is reportedly planning to subpoena far-right conspiracy theorist Alex Jones’ records after his texts and emails were revealed Wednesday in a defamation lawsuit filed by the families of the Sandy Hook shooting victims, sources familiar with the matter and another person briefed on it told Rolling Stone.
In a cross-examination in the defamation trial on Wednesday, Sandy Hook victims’ attorney Mark Bankston told Jones that his lawyer had erroneously sent Bankston three years-worth of the conspiracy theorist’s emails and text messages copied from his phone.
The Jan. 6 Select Committee is now reportedly preparing to request those records from the attorneys representing the Sandy Hook victims for its investigation into the events surrounding the deadly Capitol insurrection, according to Rolling Stone. The internal deliberations among the committee regarding its planned request reportedly occurred within minutes of Bankston’s revelation that was aired in the trial’s livestream on Wednesday afternoon.
The Jan. 6 Select Committee declined to provide comment to TPM.
Jones has emerged as a recurring figure in the Jan. 6 Select Committee’s investigation for his role in garnering public support for the attack on the Capitol as well as his close ties to Stewart Rhodes, leader of the far-right Oath Keepers. Rhodes frequently appeared on Jones’ InfoWars channel, and a series of texts among members of the Oath Keepers revealed in court documents showed discussions of providing security for Jones and other allies of former President Trump.
Jones was initially subpoenaed by the Jan. 6 Select Committee in November. The panel requested Jones to turn over documents and participate in a deposition. A letter by the committee noted that the Trump White House told Jones on Jan. 3, 2021 to lead a march to the Capitol, where President Trump would meet” with protesters.
It is currently unclear what the committee’s specific interests are in Jones’ communications, Rolling Stone reported. Lawyers for the Sandy Hook plaintiffs, however, have alleged that Jones deliberately withheld relevant communications about the false claims he spread about the tragedy and lied about having conducted a search for the records.
Bankston told Jones in court Wednesday that the documents were eventually turned over after Jones’ lawyer “did not take any steps to identify it as privileged or protected in any way and as of two days ago it fell free and clear into my possession.”
“That is how I know you lied to me,” Bankston told Jones.
Jones previously lost four defamation cases last year that were filed against him by the families of the victims of the 2012 shooing at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut, in which a gunman fatally shot 20 elementary school students and six educators. After nearly four years of litigation, Jones lost those cases after failing to produce documents and testimony ordered by courts in Texas and Connecticut.
Three trials for damages were set in motion soon after, with the first trial held in Austin this week.
Jones falsely claimed that the Sandy Hook massacre was a hoax and that the parents of the children who were killed in the tragedy were accomplices in faking the murders of their own children.
On Wednesday, Jones testified that he acknowledges that the Sandy Hook massacre was “100 percent real.”
“Especially since I’ve met the parents. It’s 100% real,” Jones said at the defamation trial on Wednesday.
