On Wednesday, following an astronomical new judgment against InfoWars webcaster Alex Jones in a civil trial in Connecticut, Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) took to Twitter to rage against the decision, suggesting that the trial is a violation of his First Amendment rights.
"No matter what you think of Alex Jones all he did was speak words," wrote Greene, in a tweet linking to a far-right website denouncing the decision. "He was not the one who pulled the trigger. Were his words wrong and did he apologize? Yes. That's what freedom of speech is. Freedom to speak words. Political persecution must end."
Jones was ordered to pay almost $1 billion to the parents of murdered Sandy Hook Elementary School children, over his repeated claims on his radio show that the 2012 school shooting was a false flag operation staged by the government, a claim for which his supporters stalked and harassed the parents for years. The judgment joins another lawsuit over the matter in Texas, in which Jones was ordered to pay $50 million.
The First Amendment prohibits the government from making any law infringing on freedom of speech. It does not, however, protect people from being sued over defamatory claims.
Jones has already begun fundraising off the verdict against him, which poses a serious financial threat to his media and product sales.
Greene, a pro-QAnon freshman congresswoman, has caused nonstop controversy in office, from being stripped of committee assignments after the emergence of social media posts in which she endorsed killing prominent Democrats, to sharing a video of herself kicking a young political activist in the back.
