Judge orders conspiracy extremist to turn over records to Sandy Hook families in defamation case

FILE-- Conservative commentator Alex Jones speaks outside the hearing room prior to testimony by Google CEO Sundar Pichai during a House Judiciary Committee hearing on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC, Dec. 11, 2018. The conspiracy extremist being sued for defamation by Sandy Hook families was ordered by a judge on Friday to turn over marketing and business records from his Infowars internet program. less FILE-- Conservative commentator Alex Jones speaks outside the hearing room prior to testimony by Google CEO Sundar Pichai during a House Judiciary Committee hearing on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC, Dec. 11, ... more Photo: SAUL LOEB/AFP/Getty Images Photo: SAUL LOEB/AFP/Getty Images Image 1 of / 12 Caption Close Judge orders conspiracy extremist to turn over records to Sandy Hook families in defamation case 1 / 12 Back to Gallery

NEWTOWN - A conspiracy extremist being sued for defamation by Sandy Hook families was ordered by a judge on Friday to turn over marketing and business records from his Infowars internet program.

Alex Jones, the Texas-based talk show host, was sued in May by an FBI agent and seven families who lost loved ones in the 2012 Sandy Hook massacre, claiming he “developed, amplified and perpetuated claims that the Sandy Hook massacre was staged and that the 26 families who lost loves ones that day are paid actors who faked their relatives’ deaths.”

On Friday, an attorney for the families called Jones a conspiracy profiteer.

“From the beginning we have alleged that Alex Jones and his financial network trafficked in lies and hate in order to profit from the grief of Sandy Hook families,” said attorney Chris Mattei . “That is what we intend to prove, and today’s ruling advances our effort.”

The families’ lawsuit against Jones is separate from a similar defamation claim filed in April by three other parents of children who died in the Sandy Hook massacre.

In April, Neil Heslin, the father of slain student Jesse Lewis, and Leonard Pozner and Veronique De La Rosa, the parents of slain student Noah Pozner, each sued Jones for more than $1 million in damages for claiming, among other things, that the murder was “staged,” “synthetic,” “manufactured,” “a giant hoax” and “completely fake with actors,” with “inside job written all over it.”

In response, Jones has said through his attorneys in court documents that he no longer believes that the Sandy Hook massacre was a hoax, and that he has the right to have been wrong about it.

Jones did not immediately return a call for comment on Friday to his production studio in Austin.