Attorneys for right-wing media mogul Alex Jones are arguing that he should not be sued for defamation because, they say, when the inflammatory radio host broadcasts lies and conspiracy theories to his millions of viewers, he is merely stating his opinion, not facts.

Jones is currently fighting to dismiss three defamation lawsuits against him and his Austin-based site Infowars brought by parents who lost their children in the 2012 Sandy Hook massacre and a 24-year-old man who was, without any evidence, falsely identified as the Parkland shooter.

In a crowded Texas courtroom this week, two separate hearings set the framework for Jones' mounting legal battle over whether he should be held responsible for what he says and publishes on his platforms. For years, Jones, who has a massive, cultlike following, has unabatedly peddled conspiracy theories to an ever-growing number of fans, many of whom believe them to be the truth.

As a result, his sweeping fanbase has targeted, harassed, and attacked survivors of terror attacks and mass shootings and family members of victims, as well as other completely innocent people.

In the five years since a shooter killed 20 children and six adults in Newtown, Connecticut, Jones has aired several segments accusing the parents who lost their children of being "crisis actors" fabricating their anguish as part of an elaborate, government-backed plot to push a gun control agenda.



Now, a host of them are fighting back. Veronique De La Rosa and Leonard Pozner, whose 6-year-old son, Noah, died in the Sandy Hook shooting, and Marcel Fontaine, a Massachusetts man whom an Infowars "reporter" falsely identified as the Parkland shooter after finding his photo from days before the shooting on 4chan, a fringe website, are all taking action.

Each party is seeking more than $1 million in damages, though neither of them showed up in court because, their attorneys say, they are too "terrified to go out in public."

"These people have had to relocate and are fearing for their lives. These parents had to move hundreds of miles away from where their child is buried and a young man suffers from debilitating anxiety because of what this man has said," said Mark Bankston, an attorney with Farrar & Ball, who is representing three cases filed in Texas against Jones. "These are some of the most egregious cases of false information in the history of this country."

Jones is currently facing five defamation suits: three in Texas; one in Connecticut, in which six more families of students killed in Sandy Hook demand reparations for being accused of lying about their children's deaths; and another in Virginia connected to the Charlottesville white supremacist rally.



The cases highlight an increasingly common, murky intersection of incendiary content on the internet, the people responsible for creating it, and the legal ramifications of posturing misinformation as truth. They also raise a "very interesting question of law" as to whether a person like the parent of a mass shooting victim can become an "involuntary" public figure by speaking out about their experience, state District Judge Scott Jenkins explained Wednesday.

The judge has about a month to decide whether to let the lawsuits proceed.



Mark Enoch, Jones' attorney, is arguing that his client is a commentator and that he doesn't really mean what he says: He's espousing his opinions and is thus protected under the First Amendment. He also began the hearing by reminding the court that his client has admitted that the shooting occurred and wanted “to reiterate the fact that he is sorry for their loss.”



Jones is seeking more than $100,000 from the Pozners to cover his court costs, citing the Texas Citizens Participation Act, which aims to protect people's right to free speech without fear of retaliatory, costly lawsuits.

“Maybe it’s fringe speech. Maybe it’s dangerous speech, but it is not defamation,” Enoch told the judge in court on Wednesday, according to Reuters. "That is rhetorical hyperbole at its core.”

To hammer home this point, Enoch and his team played about 40 minutes of an Infowars episode called "Sandy Hook Vampires Exposed," which lashed out at Muslims and outlined why he thinks the Sandy Hook shooting was a "false flag" created by the government.