20. The underlying point or gist of Shroyer’s report is that Plaintiff’s version “is not possible” and “cannot be accurate,” and that Plaintiff was lying about the circumstances of his son’s tragic death for a nefarious and criminal purpose.
3
https://www.infowars.com/zero-hedge-...nes-hit-piece/ 4 Id.
5 Id.
6 Id.
7 Id.
4
21. Shroyer’s report was manifestly false. In addition, a minimal amount of research would have caused any competent journalist not to publish the defamatory accusation. According to contemporary news accounts, the bodies of the victims were released from the medical examiner into the custody of the families.8 Funerals where the children’s bodies were in the custody of their parents were widely reported on by the press.9
22. On July 20, InfoWars programming featured a segment hosted by Alex Jones in which Shroyer’s report was re-broadcast in full. When introducing the segment, Jones demanded that Plaintiff “clarify” what actually happened.
23. After showing the segment, Jones said he told Shroyer, “I could never find out. The stuff I found was they never let them see their bodies. That’s kind of what’s weird about this. But maybe they did. So I’m sure it’s all real. But for some reason they don’t want you to see [Shroyer’s segment].”10
24. Regarding the Sandy Hook shooting, Jones said, “Can I prove that New Haven [sic] didn’t happen? No. So I’ve said, for years, we’ve had debates about it, that I don’t know. But you can’t blame people for asking.”11
25. Mr. Jones was lying. In the five years following the tragedy, he has repeatedly and unequivocally called the Sandy Hook shooting a hoax.
8
https://patch.com/connecticut/newtow...chool-shooting
9
ABC News ? Breaking News, Latest News, Headlines & Videos https://www.washingtonpost.com/polit...sacre-victims- begin/2012/12/17/ffd0a130-486d-11e2-820e-17eefac2f939_story.html?utm_term=.0ccbbb4af100
10
https://www.mediamatters.org/blog/20...fy-whether-he- actually-held-his-son-s-body-and-saw-bullet-hole/217333
11 Id.
5
BACKGROUND TO INFOWARS’ 2017 DEFAMATORY STATEMENTS
26. In order to appreciate the full defamatory impact and the extent of the mental anguish caused by InfoWars’ 2017 statements, it is necessary to understand InfoWars’ long history of harassing the Sandy Hook parents with defamatory lies. InfoWars’ 2017 statements are but the latest in a series of false, hurtful, and dangerous assertions about Plaintiff and the parents of the other victims.
27. In 2013, Jones called the shooting “staged” and said, “It’s got inside job written all over it.”12
28. In March 2014, Jones said, “Folks, we’ve got video of Anderson Cooper with clear blue-screen out there. [Shaking head]. He’s not there in the town square. We got people clearly coming up and laughing and then doing the fake crying. We’ve clearly got people where it’s actors playing different parts for different people, the building bulldozed, covering up everything. Adam Lanza trying to get guns five times we’re told. The witnesses not saying it was him...I’ve looked at it and undoubtedly, there’s a cover-up, there’s actors, they’re manipulating, they’ve been caught lying, and they were pre-planning before it and rolled out with it.”13
29. In May 2014, InfoWars published an article titled: “CONNECTICUT TRIES TO HIDE SANDY HOOK TRUTH.”14
12
https://www.mediamatters.org/blog/20...govt-is-prime- su/193635;
https://www.mediamatters.org/embed/c...ones-20130409- sandyhook
13
https://www.mediamatters.org/embed/c...40314-shooting 14
https://www.infowars.com/connecticut...dy-hook-truth/
6
30. In September 2014, InfoWars published an article titled: “FBI SAYS NO ONE KILLED AT SANDY HOOK.”15
31. In December 2014, Jones said on his radio program, “The whole thing is a giant hoax. How do you deal with a total hoax? It took me about a year, with Sandy Hook, to come to grips with the fact that the whole thing was fake. I did deep research.”16
32. In the same December 2014 broadcast, Jones continued: “The general public doesn’t know the school was actually closed the year before. They don’t know they’ve sealed it all, demolished the building. They don’t know that they had the kids going in circles in and out of the building as a photo-op. Blue screen, green screens, they got caught using.”17
33. Jones made similar comments in January 2015, stating on InfoWars: “You learn the school had been closed and re-opened. And you’ve got video of the kids going in circles, in and out of the building, and they don’t call the rescue choppers for two hours, and then they tear the building down, and seal it. And they get caught using blue-screens, and an email by Bloomberg comes out in a lawsuit, where he’s telling his people get ready in the next 24 hours to capitalize on a shooting. Yeah, so Sandy Hook is a synthetic, completely fake with actors, in my view, manufactured. I couldn’t believe it at first. I knew they had actors there, clearly, but I thought they killed some real kids. And it just shows how bold they are
15
https://www.infowars.com/fbi-says-no...at-sandy-hook/
16
https://www.realclearpolitics.com/vi...lex_jones.html 17
https://www.mediamatters.org/embed/c...1228-sandyhook
7
that they clearly used actors. I mean they even ended up using photos of kids killed in mass shootings here in a fake mass shooting in Turkey, or Pakistan. The sky is now the limit.”18
34. Mr. Jones’ statement about Pakistan refers to a conspiracy theory Jones helped spread involving deceased minor child N.P., a Sandy Hook victim whose photograph appeared at vigil for children slain a school attack in Peshawar. On the day of the Peshawar incident, a Pakistani woman created a collage of photographs of young people killed in school attacks and posted it to Facebook with the caption “They Went to School and Never Came Back.”19 Because the Peshawar shooting occurred very close to the anniversary of the Sandy Hook massacre, she included a picture of a child from the latter event, along with pictures of Peshawar victims.20 That collage was then printed out and cut up into the individual photographs displayed by mourners at a vigil for the Peshawar victims.21
35. In the same month, January of 2015, InfoWars published an article titled: “MYSTERY: SANDY HOOK VICTIM DIES (AGAIN) IN PAKISTAN.”22 The article states: “A large-scale attack on a school in Peshawar, Pakistan, last month left 132 school children and 10 teachers dead. Among the alleged victims emerged the familiar face of [deceased minor N.P.], one of the children supposedly killed in the December 2012 Sandy Hook school shooting in Newtown, Connecticut.” InfoWars’
18
https://www.mediamatters.org/embed/c...50113-shooting 19
https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/info-boors/
20 Id.
21 Id.
22
https://www.infowars.com/mystery-san...n-in-pakistan/ 8
story was meant to reinforce Mr. Jones’ persistent lie that N.P. and the other victims of the shooting, such as Plaintiff’s son J.L., are not real.
36. In July 2015, Mr. Jones stated on InfoWars: “But you’ve got green- screen with Anderson Cooper, where I was watching the video, and the flower and plants were blowing in some of them, and then they blow again the same way. It’s looped. And then his nose disappears. I mean, it’s fake. The whole thing is...I don’t know what happened. It’s kind of like if you see a hologram at Disney World in the Haunted House. You know? I don’t know how they do it, but it’s not real. When you take your kids to see the Haunted House and ghosts are flying around, it’s not real, folks. It’s staged. I mean, a magician grabs a rabbit out of his hat. I know he’s got a box under the table that he reaches in and gets the rabbit. I don’t know what the trick is here. I’ve got a good suspicion. But when you’ve got Wolfgang Halbig...He believed it was real. People called him. He went and investigated. No paperwork, no nothing. It’s bull. And now an FBI retired agent, who retired, you know, with decorations. I mean, [InfoWars reporter Rob] Dew, this unprecedented.”23
37. In the same month, InfoWars published an article titled: “MEGA MASSIVE COVER UP: RETIRED FBI AGENT INVESTIGATES SANDY HOOK.”24