Trial begins in Alex Jones’ Sandy Hook damages lawsuit

By JIM VERTUNO
Associated Press

AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — An attorney for the parents of one of the children who were killed in the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting told jurors that conspiracy theorist Alex Jones repeatedly “lied and attacked the parents of murdered children” when he told his Infowars audience that the 2012 attack was a hoax. Attorney Mark Bankston said during his opening statement at a civil trial in Texas to determine damages against Jones that Jones created a “massive campaign of lies” and recruited “wild extremists from the fringes of the internet … who were as cruel as Mr. Jones wanted them to be” to the victims’ families. Jones later blasted the case, calling it a “show trial” and an assault on the First Amendment.