We at the Chronicle try to make this space an Alex Jones-free zone, but report the news we must. Austin's homegrown conspiracy clown, now an international embarrassment, had a bad day in court last week. Connecticut Superior Court Judge Barbara Bellis ruled on Friday that plaintiffs in a defamation lawsuit against Jones, alleging a "campaign of harassment" following the Sandy Hook school shooting, could access the financial records of Jones and Infowars, the unaccountably popular multimedia platform from which he proliferates his nonsense – including the theory that Sandy Hook was a "false flag" hoax designed to gin up support for stricter gun laws. (Note that 20 children under the age of 7, along with seven adults and the shooter, died in the 2012 massacre.) The ruling could give the plaintiffs – relatives of children and adults killed in the massacre and an FBI agent who responded to the shooting – access to the internal communications and marketing strategies at Infowars, a step the plaintiffs' lawyers described as necessary to understand the planning and coordination that went into perpetuating the Sandy Hook conspiracy theory. Attorneys for Jones plan to appeal the ruling.

Here at home, in a separate lawsuit filed by a different Sandy Hook parent in Travis County's 53rd District Court, lawyers for the plaintiff also filed a motion for discovery, saying she cannot adequately detail the harassment she endured – coordinated and promoted by Jones and his employees – without access to documents. The motion reads: "Plaintiff is entitled to present the full scope of the outrageous conduct supporting her [intentional infliction of emotional distress] claim, and discovery will aid her in creating a record which fairly and fully describes Defendants' continuing course of conduct." A hearing on the motion is scheduled for Jan. 24.