Jim Bourg/Reuters
- Lawyers for the Sandy Hook families suing conspiracy theorist Alex Jones say that Jones included child pornography in documents Jones turned over to the families as part of their lawsuit against him.
- Citing court documents filed Monday, the Connecticut Post reported the law firm representing families currently suing Jones stated in the documents that they alerted the FBI to child pornography uncovered in pre-trial discovery.
- In a Friday broadcast on his website InfoWars, Jones claimed to have been attacked with malware that placed child pornography on his servers, and offered his viewers a $1 million reward to find the supposed perpetrator.
- "You’re trying to set me up with child porn, I’ll get your ass," Jones said in the video. "One million dollars, you little gang members. One million dollars to put your head on a pike."
- Parents of children killed in the 2012 mass shooting at Sandy Hook elementary school in Newtown, Connecticut are suing Jones for defamation over Jones’ years of calling the shooting "a hoax."
- Visit Business Insider’s homepage for more stories.
Lawyers for the Sandy Hook families suing conspiracy theorist Alex Jones say that Jones included child pornography in documents Jones turned over to the families as part of their lawsuit against him, the Connecticut Post reported on Monday.
Citing court documents filed Monday, the Connecticut Post said the law firm representing families currently suing Jones stated in the documents that they alerted the FBI to child pornography they uncovered in InfoWars’ electronic files, which a judge ordered Jones to turn over to the plaintiffs as part of pre-trial discovery.
It is not clear if Jones actively solicited or knowingly possessed the images.
Chris Mattei, one of the lawyers representing the Sandy Hook families, also says that Jones explicitly threatened him and his colleagues in a Friday broadcast on his website InfoWars in which he claimed to have been attacked with malware that placed child pornography on his servers, and offered his viewers a $1 million reward to find the supposed perpetrator.
"You’re trying to set me up with child porn, I’ll get your ass," Jones said in the video. "One million dollars, you little gang members. One million dollars to put your head on a pike," he added, showing multiple pictures of Mattei on the screen during the broadcast.
He continued: "Let’s zoom in on Chris Mattei. Oh, nice little Chris Mattei. What a good American. What a good boy. You think you’ll put on me, what—I’m gonna kill…anyway, I’m done! Total war!" he said while physically pounding a printed picture of Mattei on the table.
Jones’ lawyer Norman Pattis refuted that Jones’ comments constituted a threat against Mattei and his colleagues, telling the Connecticut Post that Jones "was upset" and "spoke in a compassionate fashion." Pattis previously told the Daily Beast that an outside firm reviewing Jones and InfoWars’ online communications found 12 "threatening" emails that included child pornography.
While the FBI declined to confirm the existence of an ongoing investigation to the Daily Beast, court documents filed by Mattei on Monday state that "the plaintiffs’ Electronically Stored Information consultants began loading files into a document review database in an effort to make them reviewable by counsel as quickly as possible. During that process, the consultants identified an image that appeared to be child pornography."
According to the court filing, the FBI added, "they immediately contacted counsel, who immediately contacted the FBI … the FBI advised counsel that its review located numerous additional illegal images, which had apparently been sent to InfoWars email addresses."
Parents of children killed in the 2012 mass shooting at Sandy Hook elementary school in Newtown, Connecticut are suing Jones, who has been banned from most major social media sites, for defamation over Jones’ years of calling the shooting "a hoax" and accusing the children killed and the survivors of being "crisis actors.’
The parties are currently engaging in pre-trial discovery, which included the plaintiffs deposing Jones in March, and a judge ordering him to turn over InfoWars’ electronic records to the families’ lawyers, in preparation for potentially bringing the lawsuit to trial.
In the Monday court filing, the families’ lawyers said "if the Jones Defendants had engaged in even minimal due diligence and actually reviewed the materials before production, they would have found the images themselves … Jones Defendants put plaintiffs’ counsel and ESI consultants in the appalling position of discovering the first image."
According to the Connecticut Post, the parties are scheduled for a Tuesday hearing before Superior Court Judge Barbara Bellis, in which the plaintiffs are asking for "expedited relief" and for the court to review the InfoWars broadcast beforehand.
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SEE ALSO: Conspiracy site Infowars will pay $15,000 to Pepe the Frog’s creator to settle a copyright lawsuit
Source: Business Insider – gpanetta@businessinsider.com (Grace Panetta)