Infowars, the right-wing conspiracy theory site founded by Alex Jones, does not regret publishing false claims that the 2012 Sandy Hook elementary school shooting was a hoax, according to a new deposition with news director Rob Dew exclusively obtained by BuzzFeed News.

“I think our reporting stopped what was going to be a lot of anti-gun legislation that was coming down,” Dew said, adding, “I am proud of that.”

The nearly two-hour deposition with Dew provided a glimpse into the inner workings of the shadowy media operation, detailing how its founder and employees created news stories and sold them as the “real” truth to millions of viewers. It comes amid the ongoing and catastrophic fall of Jones, who has been largely banned from Apple, Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube. In the past year, Jones has lost a number of appeals in defamation cases brought by the families of Sandy Hook victims and has been ordered to pay thousands in fines for not taking the suits seriously and destroying evidence. Meanwhile, two of his former employees have accused him of discrimination and harassment. (Jones has denied the claims.) Earlier this month, an ex-producer wrote a damning account in the New York Times describing how Jones fed his audience’s “prejudices and fears.”

In the newly released deposition, Dew — acting as the representative of Infowars’ parent company, Free Speech Systems — repeatedly said he did not know, did not remember, or was not prepared to answer almost every question about how he, Jones, and other employees found and verified their information about the Sandy Hook shooting before claiming it as fact and blasting it across their sprawling network of platforms.

Dew claimed he did not remember how he and Jones obtained evidence used to support narratives in videos like “Sandy Hook was a DHS Illusion” and “Sandy Hook Vampires Exposed,” and said he was proud of Infowars’ coverage and never meant to “hurt families.”

Dew also argued that the site's Sandy Hook coverage helped thwart Democrats’ attempts at pushing gun control legislation, calling Infowars the “stewards of the Second Amendment.”



“We never told anybody to go after people’s families,” he said. “We see events like these…even today when these events happen and the next thing that comes out of a politician’s mouth is 'We’re going to grab people’s guns.'”

Speaking on behalf of Jones’ company, he rejected any responsibility for the emotional distress and harassment that Jones’ fans have inflicted on victims' family members after watching and reading Infowars.

“I am not responsible for what someone else does,” Dew told Bill Ogden and Mark Bankston, Texas attorneys with Farrar & Ball, who are representing four Sandy Hook families.