A lawyer representing eight families who lost family members in the 2012 Sandy Hook massacre tore into Infowars founder Alex Jones as the second damages trial against him began in Connecticut.
“Unless you stand up to bullies, a bully will never stop,” Chris Mattei said during opening statements on Tuesday, according to Law & Crime.
Norm Pattis, a lawyer for Mr Jones, told the jury that their task is not to stop the Infowars host.
“Our suggestion is you stop Alex Jones you do a graver harm upon the public,” Mr Pattis said. “They hate him because he says outrageous things and the haters want him silenced.”
Mr Jones and Infowars were sanctioned just minutes into Tuesday’s proceedings.
Judge Barbara Bellis issued a ruling that Mr Jones and Infowars will not be allowed to argue that they didn’t make considerable profits from covering the shooting because they didn’t hand over Google Analytics data concerning the traffic of Infowars to the plaintiffs, Vice reported.
Mr Jones and other individuals appearing on Infowars falsely claimed for several years that the massacre was a hoax. He claimed that the hoax was staged by crisis actors and the government to harm Americans’ second amendment rights. Mr Jones has said that he doesn’t retain that position anymore.
Towards the end of last year, Mr Jones and Infowars were found liable by default in a number of civil cases in Connecticut and Texas, where Infowars is located.
That ruling means that this trial, and the one before it that took place in Texas, are only meant to decide how large the damages will be.
The first trial included other plaintiffs and found that the defendants should pay $49.3m in damages. The plaintiffs in the trial in Connecticut are eight families who lost family members in the shooting as well as an FBI agent who responded to the school. Mr Jones lost three defamation cases connected to his Sandy Hook claims, according to Law & Crime.
Mr Mattei spoke about Mr Jones’ efforts to increase the fear his viewers were feeling in an effort to sell suspect health items.
“The whole message is this – that there is a global plot of financial and media political elites, including in our own government, which are trying to establish a one-world, radical government to enslave and kill people,” Mr Mattei said. “That’s the message, and he’s been pushing it for 20 years now.”
“You heard about when I told you that the government is lowering your sex drive so that you won’t have any more children?” he added. “Then I have something just for you: Super male and female vitality. Just $52.45.”
“You [heard] about those food shortages that the government has been inflicting upon you,” he said. “I got storable food for you.”
Mr Mattei showed charts to the jury detailing the increase in traffic for the outlet after they posted reports falsely claiming that no one died in the shooting.
Including the gunman and his mother, who died at her home, 28 people died in the shooting.
Mr Pattis said that Mr Jones started to attract criticism when he began supporting former President Donald Trump in the 2016 election against former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.
“She never got sued,” he said.
“I am going to deal with Mr Jones when he testifies,” Judge Bellis said. “I expected to canvas him on the issues that are off limits. If there are issues I will address contempt on the spot.”
