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Jones moves to dismiss lawsuit

Alex Jones, the far-right Internet conspiracy theorists who believe the 2012 Sandy Hook shooting was a hoax, is being sued by the victims’ families for defamation. This week, Jones moved to have the lawsuit dismissed.

Twenty kindergarten students and six adults were killed in the Sandy Hook massacre. But Jones has maintained that the shooting was staged, part of a plot by the government to restrict gun rights. Lenny Pozner, the father of victim Noah Pozner, said his family has been bombarded with hate mail and threats as a result of Jones’ smear campaign. Pozner and a coalition of other Sandy Hook parents initiated the lawsuit against Jones.

“Mr. Pozner has sought for years to try to get these conspiracy theorists to understand that his son really was a person and that his son really did die and as a last resort we initiated this defamation case,” Pozner’s lawyer told NPR.

Earlier this week, Jones went on an obscene tirade on his online show, accusing the Sandy Hook parents and their allies of “trying to set [me] up.”

“You’re trying to set me up with child porn, I’m going to get your a**. One million dollars, one million dollars you little gang member. One million dollars to put your head on a pike,” Jones ranted.

Jones is seeking to have the suit dismissed on free-speech grounds. He said he now acknowledges the Sandy Hook shooting did occur, and that he only believed it was a hoax because he was suffering from “temporary psychosis.”