Trump ally and self-proclaimed political “dirty trickster” Roger Stone is accusing Infowars host Alex Jones’s lawyers of deliberately leaking the contents of the right-wing broadcaster’s cell phone during the recent Sandy Hook defamation trial.
On Friday, Mr Stone made a post on Telegram, highlighting how Mr Jones’s lawyer, Andino Reynal, had worked for the Obama-era Department of Justice.
“Now do you think his release of Jones’ text messages was ‘inadvertent’ or a mistake? If I were Jones I would sue this guy for the exact same amount that the jury finds against him,” Mr Stone wrote.
The Independent has contacted Mr Reynal for comment.
On Wednesday, the attorneys for the Sandy Hook families who were suing the Infowars host for defamation disclosed that Mr Reynal accidentally shared the contents of Mr Jones’s phone during the discovery process.
Lawyer Mark Bankston claimed the trove of messages, which spans years, showed Mr Jones had lied about the extent to which he had communicated with close associates about Sandy Hook.
Within minutes of the bombshell revelation that the texts messages had been shared, the House committee investigating the attack on the US Capitol began preparing to subpoena the messages, a source told Rolling Stone.
Both Mr Jones and Mr Stone were key figures in the “Stop the Steal” rallies that took place before and during the January 6 riot at the US Capitol. Mr Jones in particular once claimed on Infowars that the White House explicitly asked him to lead a march on the Capitol.
On Thursday, Mr Jones and his lawyers sought an emergency protection motion to destroy the leaked messages and declare a mistrial.
“We have a situation here which is akin to me mistakenly giving him the key to a room, and he opens the door to the room and instead of finding what he expected find other doors,” Mr Reynal said.
Mr Bankston, the lawyer for the families, responded that he notified Mr Reynal the messages had been leaked.
“Mr Reynal is using a fig leaf to put over his own malpractice,” the attorney said in court. “Things like Mr Jones’ intimate messages with Roger Stone are not confidential.”
A judge ultimately rejected the mistrial bid, and a jury ordered Mr Jones to pay nearly $50m to the family of a Sandy Hook victim for his claims that the mass shooting didn’t exist.
