Alex Jones Arrives at Court, Calls Judge a 'Tyrant'

A defiant Alex Jones arrived at a Connecticut courthouse Tuesday, declaring his innocence despite already being found liable for spreading the lie that the 2012 Sandy Hook school massacre was a hoax, per the AP. A jury has been hearing evidence for a week to determine how much Jones must pay the families of eight victims and an FBI agent who was among the first to respond to the shooting that took the lives of 20 first-graders and six educators. Jones arrived at the courthouse about 9:30am, though it's unclear what day he might be called to the stand. Last week, he declared on his Infowars web show that the proceeding is nothing more than a "show trial," and he continued that theme on Tuesday.

"This is a travesty of justice and this judge is a tyrant," Jones said outside the courthouse. "This judge is ordering me to say that I'm guilty and to say that I'm a liar. None of that is true. I was not wrong about Sandy Hook on purpose. I questioned it." Judge Barbara Bellis found Jones and Infowars' parent company, Free Speech Systems, liable by default last year without a trial, as punishment for what she called his repeated failures to turn over documents to the Sandy Hook lawyers. Jones has complained that he was found "guilty" without trials. There is no guilt in civil trials like this one in Connecticut, or one last month in Texas where a jury awarded nearly $50 million in damages to the parents of one of the children killed in the shooting.

The judge "has now ordered me to not say I'm not innocent and ordered me to say that I have not profited from Sandy Hook," Jones said Tuesday. "That's ordering me to perjure myself. I will not perjure myself under the order of a judge." Jones isn't being allowed to present defenses arguing he's not liable, including that the First Amendment gave him the right to say the shooting didn't happen. The plaintiffs say Jones' promotion of the hoax lie on his Infowars show led to the families being threatened and harassed by deniers of the shooting. And they say while Jones talked about the shooting, sales of the dietary supplements, clothing, food, and other items he hawks on his show surged.

(More Alex Jones stories.)