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<http://apnews.com>
Infowars rep: 'False statements' on Sandy Hook shooting
By DAVE COLLINS and JENNIFER PELTZ

WATERBURY, Conn. (AP) - A representative for conspiracy theorist Alex
Jones' Infowars empire acknowledged on the witness stand Wednesday
that the show and website spread falsehoods about the Sandy Hook
school shooting.

"I don't think that we disagree that there were false statements
made," Brittany Paz testified at a civil trial involving Jones' claims
that the nation's deadliest school shooting was staged as a pretext to
tighten gun regulations.

Paz, a lawyer hired by Jones' defense to testify on the company's
workings, said she believed Jones didn't personally investigate the
massacre. Nonetheless, he and Infowars repeatedly and falsely said it
was a hoax, propped up by actors posing as grieving parents. Multiple
Infowars videos featured what Paz called the "crisis actor theory."

"You mean 'lie'?" plaintiffs' lawyer Christopher Mattei said, to
objections from Jones' attorney.

"They're not actors. Correct," Paz ultimately responded.

Soon after the killings, Jones disseminated the notion that one slain
child's father was reading a script devised by the government or media
to shape public opinion, and Jones said the claim "needs to be looked
into."

Later on, another young victim's father told Infowars in an email that
the families were distraught at being harassed over the lies about the
supposed hoax and crisis actors. An Infowars employee replied that the
company was distancing itself from the claims. But another Infowars
employee continued to develop the theory, Paz testified.

The jury is tasked only with determining what Jones has to pay to
eight victims' families and an FBI agent - a judge already found the
Infowars host liable for damages, by default. She made that
determination after he failed to turn over documents as ordered during
the lawsuit.

Jones is expected to testify eventually, but he hasn't attended the
trial so far. On his Infowars web show Wednesday, he called the
proceeding a "show trial" meant to squelch dissent. He has cast the
case as part of a dark campaign against him, his audience and
Americans' free speech rights under the First Amendment.

"We knew they were using Sandy Hook to get the Second, but now they're
using it to kill the First," he said. The trial comes about a month
after a Texas jury ordered him to pay nearly $50 million to the
parents of a child killed at Sandy Hook.

Jones' lawyer, Norm Pattis, has urged the Connecticut jury to keep any
damages minimal, arguing that the families are making overblown claims
of harm.

The families say the emotional and psychological harm was profound and persistent. Relatives say they were subjected to social media
harassment, death threats, strangers videotaping them and their
children, and the surreal pain of being told that they were faking
their loss.

"It's hurtful. It's devastating. It's crippling. You can't grieve
properly because you're constantly defending yourself and your family
and your loved ones," Carlee Soto Parisi testified Tuesday.

Her sister, teacher Vicki Soto, was among the 26 people killed on Dec.
14, 2012, at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut.
Twenty victims were children.

Soto Parisi described seeing social media comments claiming that she
was a crisis actor, that her sister wasn't shot or didn't exist, and
that the massacre never happened. She testified about getting ominous
social media messages with gun emojis and finding a note on her door
from a stranger saying she needed to go to church.

And one time, she said, a conspiracy theorist showed up and shouted,
"This never happened!" at a fundraising run that the family holds in
Vicki Soto's honor.

The families argue that Jones trafficked in lies to boost his audience
and, with it, customers for Infowars merchandise. Data shown in court
Wednesday charted spurts in people viewing his websites and social
media accounts after he started talking about Sandy Hook.

By 2016, Jones' show aired on 150 affiliate radio stations, and the
Infowars website got 40 million page views a month, according to
statistics that the company used to pitch advertisers. Paz said she
believes Jones has made hundreds of millions of dollars in the decade
since the Sandy Hook slayings.

Jones now acknowledges the shooting was real. At the Texas trial, he
testified that he realizes what he said was irresponsible, and he
apologized.

He insists, however, that his comments were protected free speech.

"I don't apologize for questioning it," he said on his show Wednesday.
"I apologize if, out of context, I hurt somebody's feelings."



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