7 ms·

So all the memes aside, is anyone else astounded at how poorly that went for Alex Jones? Just a shit-show nearly the entire time. From his terrible legal repres

So all the memes aside, is anyone else astounded at how poorly that went for Alex Jones? Just a shit-show nearly the entire time. From his terrible legal representation, to his own terrible testimony. Just a mess. I mean, his 'on-air' personality is a mess, but I always sort of thought it was just a show. It's interesting to me that it turned out he really is just an absolute train-wreck of a person.

drexlspivey 4y ago
I am astounded how someone can sit on the stand and spew lie after lie after lie under oath with no repercussions.
- superb-owl 4y ago
  I mean...$4M is definitely a repercussion. But yeah, TBH he should probably spend time in jail.
  - nrmitchi 4y ago
    $4M is a repercussion for spending years making up conspiracy theories and targetting the families of dead children. Also note that this is compensitory damages only, and hasn't even touch on punitive damagers yet. It has nothing to do with his perjury.
    - superb-owl 4y ago
      Yeah for sure. My impression though is that the perjury played a role in the decision here though...the opposing counsel definitely made a point of highlighting it over and over.
    - khuey 4y ago
      Punitive damages are capped at low amounts in Texas and may not happen at all since they require unanimity (which the jury did not have on the compensatory verdict).
      - dragonwriter 4y ago
        > Punitive damages are capped at low amounts in Texas Low multiples of compensatory damages would be more accurate.
    - dragonwriter 4y ago
      Also, this isn't a suit covering all the Sandy Hook families; I think to covers two. There are at least two other suits already in progress from other families on similar grounds
  - snoopy_telex 4y ago
    It’s only 5 days worth of his shows profits. And he received Ed a 7 million bitcoin donation a few days earlier, so there’s zero harm to him.
  - bryanlarsen 4y ago
    This is only compensatory damages. Punitive damages are still being considered, and are often a couple of orders of magnitude larger.
  - frellus 4y ago
    This wasn't a criminal trial. Although we all want to see our "political enemies" and indecent people everywhere punished, we have to stop calling for people to be jailed without clear crimes being committed. The whole "lock her up" for Hillary that the Trump crowd chanted disgusts me, but likewise so do people calling for Trump to be prosecuted and jailed when they cannot pin an actual crime on him. If we turn into a nation of "show me the man, I'll show you the crime" I will bugger off to a small island somewhere. We cannot rule by mob sentiment, laws matter.
  - JJMcJ 4y ago
    An additional $45 million in punitive damages just awarded by the jury.
- horsawlarway 4y ago
  Frankly - this is where I am. The system falls apart if it can't enforce its own rules, and if we don't see some serious perjury charges here, I think it's a very bad sign. The message will no longer be: It's unacceptable to cheat and lie to win. It will be: Cheat and lie better. -- edit: I'd like to see at least two felony perjury charges against Jones. Ideally with max sentences.
  - hotpotamus 4y ago
    I always wonder what truly unlimited free speech would mean. How is it possible that perjury would be a crime? Fraud - just free speech right? And if money is speech, then corruption is just free speech as well. It doesn't really feel like it breaks the system down, it's more like does/did the system even exist?
    - rbanffy 4y ago
      Free speech exists for a reason - to allow a society to introspect and for truth to be explored and expressed. When one monetizes lies and conspiracy theories, manufacturing false narratives as truth, speech ceases to offer a positive value to society and its freedom should be less protected. The justice system is designed to find out the truth about disputed events or actions. Deliberately lying to it is a direct attack on its mission and should be considered a criminal offence.
      - onlyrealcuzzo 4y ago
        > Deliberately lying to it is a direct attack on its mission and should be considered a criminal offence. This is almost the definition of perjury.
    - jokethrowaway 4y ago
      None of the things you mentioned are free speech. The crime is deceiving through lies and fraud (or bribes), speech is just the tool used to achieve that.
- kordlessagain 4y ago
  His functional processes are corrupt.
  - frellus 4y ago
    This is spot on. There is something really psychologically off with him, watching how he behaved on the stand: * fidgeted with everything * couldn't focus * couldn't follow simple instructions * would forget about something said a short time ago * has extreme paranoia, borderline schizophrenic to me
- fellowniusmonk 4y ago
  yeah, I guess lying under oath is no big deal? I always thought it mattered. I was deposed to give testimony once in a dispute between two other parties and it was nerve wracking to give testimony about a few questions because it was stuff I hadn't thought about in a couple of year. Turns out it's no big deal to lie under oath? This is really troubling, how can we have the rule of law if lying under oath is allowed for some people?
  - MisterBastahrd 4y ago
    I'm not a lawyer, but I suspect that judges sorta know that people who are being sued or prosecuted are not exactly going to be reliable witnesses if they testify, and that it'd probably be a bigger deal if this were one of Jones' associates who wasn't on the hook for the money. There's also plenty of time for the judge to dial up some perjury referrals.
    - vlovich123 4y ago
      I could be wrong but my understanding is that technically lawyers are liable if they put someone on the stand they know is going to lie. I’m surprised that isn’t enforced more often.
      - MisterBastahrd 4y ago
        Defendants in any proceeding have the right to not self-incriminate. It's not the judge's responsibility to do the job for a lawyer that a defendant hires. Once they hit that witness stand, they're fair game.
  - alfiedotwtf 4y ago
    It probably has to do with how much money you have as well
  - felipellrocha 4y ago
    It's only a big deal if you're poor, though. It says so in the Constitution... /s
- jebronie 4y ago
  A person isn't lying if they think they are telling the truth.
  - dymk 4y ago
    That’s a lie
  - lbriner 4y ago
    I assume you mean that it's a defence that you thought it was true so you didn't commit a crime. That might be true at the beginning but I'm sure high-profile people like Alex Jones have enough exposure for people to put them straight at which point it becomes less of an excuse!
    - seb1204 4y ago
      That was my initial assumption too. By now I think people like Alex Jones are so far removed that every decent, same and integer human being has left his bubble. Some out of disgust, some after they tried to influence him towards society. In the end they left for their own safety/sanity. This would also be an explanation why his defence was a mess. Amber Heard is a similar case. Lawyers who side with his views and find defendable positions might not be at the top of the lawyer ladder. It's a working theory.
  - deleted 4y ago
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  - rsynnott 4y ago
    While that's broadly true, it's clearly not the case here.
- JTbane 4y ago
  It's how he became a media personality among right-wingers, make up the most outlandish and inflammatory things to get attention. Plato covered this in the Republic.
- iambateman 4y ago
  I wouldn’t be surprised if there are perjury charges on the way. Things like that take longer than we would like, but DA’s saw the same stuff we all saw.
- titzer 4y ago
  If there are no consequences for anything, the system is coming apart. There is a good goddamn reason why lying under oath, or even lying to investigators, is a crime, because truth is the bedrock of accountability. Truth is always the first victim of psychopaths.
  - SketchySeaBeast 4y ago
    Doesn't this assume the system ever worked? Is this actually a sign of the decline of civilization, or just that we are able to aware of the status quo now?
  - chmod600 4y ago
    Lying to investigators shouldn't be a crime, in my opinion. It too often creates a situation where you can just investigate someone endlessly, find no real evidence, and then convict them of lying based on some flimsy inconsistencies in their statements. I suppose some specific kinds of lies could be crimes, but there should be a high bar for both the type of lie told as well as the certainty that it's really a lie.
    - throwaway0a5e 4y ago
      The feds use this all the time. "plead guilty to this thing we probably can't get a jury conviction on and we'll drop the lying charge we can easily prove"
    - titzer 4y ago
      That's why there is the fifth amendment. > there should be a high bar for both the type of lie told as well as the certainty that it's really a lie. Perjury convictions are a fairly high bar. People don't generally get charged for "flimsy inconsistencies in their statements." Prosecutors, judges, and juries don't have endless time to spend on getting someone.
      - chmod600 4y ago
        Lying to an investigator is not perjury. It's a separate crime.
- jefftk 4y ago
  Why do you think there won't be repercussions?
  - jackmott42 4y ago
    Because we have spent the last 6 years watching dozens and dozens of bad actors get away with it, and never facing repercussion and we have become incredibly cynical of anyone wealthy ever facing justice.
    - jefftk 4y ago
      In this case it's too soon to tell what's going to happen; he could still have additional consequences for the perjury. Link to one of these past perjury situations where there were no repercussions?
      - clankyclanker 4y ago
        It does happen sometimes. My personal favorite example is this guy. I recommend search terms like "james clapper perjury congress". If this fish never got fried in the biggest pan of all, what chance do these little chefs have? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Clapper https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Clapper See: https://jonathanturley.org/2013/07/03/perjury-by-permission-clapper-apologizes-for-false-testimony-and-the-congress-remains-silent/ https://jonathanturley.org/2013/07/03/perjury-by-permission-... https://www.usatoday.com/story/opinion/2018/01/19/james-clappers-perjury-dc-made-men-dont-get-charged-lying-congress-jonathan-turley-column/1045991001/ https://www.usatoday.com/story/opinion/2018/01/19/james-clap... https://apnews.com/article/business-33a88feb083ea35515de3c73e3d854ad https://apnews.com/article/business-33a88feb083ea35515de3c73...
        jefftk 4y ago
        Jones' perjury was way clearer than Clapper's. Additionally, Clapper was part of the government, testifying on something the government wanted kept quiet.
- noasaservice 4y ago
  Like what police do regularly? I sat in a jury for a DUI case. Their lead witness, a narcotics cop, lied blatantly on the stand in complete opposition to his deposition. We jurors made up our minds 10 minutes in - not guilty. But this cop? He perjured himself. And not so much as a peep from the judge.
  - lostcolony 4y ago
    I think part of the problem with perjury is that if it's detectable you only have hurt your own case, and if it isn't detected it can't be tried. This might be somewhat unique in that the perjury charges relate to hiding evidence as well (rather than just running counter to the evidence). And, obviously, that Alex Jones isn't a cop, so that particular fetishism of law enforcement the US operates under doesn't apply.
- AnimalMuppet 4y ago
  Why do you assume that there were no repercussions? The jury got to see that he was a liar. Do you think that played no part in their decision? Do you think it will play no part in their decision on punitive damages? Or did you mean something more like prison? The provable perjury happened, what, two days ago? Indictments like that don't happen overnight, but I hope (and maybe even trust) that it is in fact coming.
superb-owl 4y ago
This is a pretty good profile: https://www.nytimes.com/2019/12/05/magazine/alex-jones-infowars.html https://www.nytimes.com/2019/12/05/magazine/alex-jones-infow... That disabused me of the notion of Jones as an Evil Genius. He's just an alcohol-and-attention-fueled nut.
- snet0 4y ago
  Watching him on Joe Rogan post Sandy-Hook gave me a pause that made me wonder if, under the public persona, there was a genuine human. I can certainly imagine that, if you're getting so heavily rewarded for the OTT absurdity, vitriol and anger, you can eventually get lost in the act. Occam's razor holds true, though. He's just a clown with issues.
  - dmlorenzetti 4y ago
    Alex Jones reminds me of the Introduction to Kurt Vonnegut's "Mother Night" -- We are what we pretend to be, so we must be careful about what we pretend to be.
  - roguas 4y ago
    Also often times there is some underlying mental illness that carries you there. A lot of people had "funny schitcks" persona for purpose of entertainment - look Stephen Colbert in Colbert report. But even without strong psych knowledge you can clearly feel if this is a parody/pastiche of particular genre. Alex does not give this vibes. Feels like there is a meta-person luring the physical person into some dark stuff.
  - lbriner 4y ago
    There are plenty of people out there who are somewhere between mentally ill, people who thinks things are funny or those who will literally do anything for fame or fortune. I mean those people who shared the fake "magnetic covid chip" videos without even a thought for feeding paranoid people who then die because they don't get vaccinated. Or people who create those ridiculous "You won't believe what Barack Obama did next" as pure click bait ads just for the money, without thinking that people then believe this stuff etc.
andsoitis 4y ago
> but I always sort of thought it was just a show Ah. Now think about the other people who you also think are just putting on a show... No, this isn't acting, it is being.
papito 4y ago
In his, uh, defense - years of serving nonsense to gullible chumps who eat up every word of your insane drivel who then send you piles of money, makes one lose their edge in the real world.
300bps 4y ago
It's interesting to me that it turned out he really is just an absolute train-wreck of a person. He seems to me like he is a very successful rabble rouser and promoter. He seems to have made millions of dollars per year fulfilling that role - as much as $800,000 per day: https://www.celebritynetworth.com/articles/celebrity/alex-jones-infowars-made-a-disgusting-amount-of-money-according-to-his-own-accidentally-leaked-text-messages/ https://www.celebritynetworth.com/articles/celebrity/alex-jo... The $4.2 million verdict doesn't seem significant to him, despite his protestations to the contrary. The plaintiffs were seeking $150 million. We'll see how much the $4.2 million is increased during the punitive phase of the trial but so far it seems like a cost of doing business for him.
jliptzin 4y ago
That went terribly for him? $4 million is pocket change for him, he made way more than that off his nonstop lies and conspiracy theories
- mattkrause 4y ago
  This is the first of several cases, I think. If he were to be charged with perjury, it might take a little while to prepare the indictment too.
- ianhawes 4y ago
  He has quite a few other pending lawsuits, plus the jury can still find for punitive damages. But you are somewhat correct, filings show that he has spent $15M in legal fees, though his income is around $62M.
- vannevar 4y ago
  The punitive damages are yet to be determined, and unlike the compensatory phase, for punitives the jury can take into account his net worth.
  - jliptzin 4y ago
    Good to know. Do the punitive damages also go to the plaintiffs? Or does it just get funneled into the government slush fund?
faeriechangling 4y ago
Having followed the case, him being absolutely demolished in court repeatedly is no shock given his brazen contempt for the court system and his refusal to abide by any sort of law or rules. I’m most shocked at his own sheer self-destructiveness. What is he going to do now? Claim the courts conspired against him?
- bena 4y ago
  Why are you shocked? So far, up until this point, he's been able to escalate his behavior with absolutely no lasting consequence. He probably honestly thought he could bluster his way through this. He probably still thinks he can scream his way out of it. It's literally Jerry's move in Rick and Morty, "I just kept crawling and it kept working"
  - faeriechangling 4y ago
    It was seeing him be at the top of his niche for so long, him running a successful business with a handful of employees, him just remaining this counterculture icon who seemed to get away with everything, it made me think that he might be more calculated than people gave him credit for. But more than anything, it was this insincere apology he gave regarding sandy hook, after which he seemed to feel above the Sandy Hook’s Survivors right to confront him in a court of law. I just sort of hoped he was a better and smarter person, maybe somebody who believed some kooky things but was doing a show mostly to entertain people and didn’t mean badly. Just seeing such hateful stupidity is surprising and disappointing to me. I might be too naive.
rbanffy 4y ago
I believe 4 million is a very small amount for the hurt he caused.
jackmott 4y ago
Justsignedup 4y ago
No person is a asshat only 30% of the time. They are an asshat who can occasionally hide it. You take an asshat and put him under extreme stress, and the true personality comes out. I can only imagine how working with him was. He may have gone through a bunch of lawyers, and the ones who stuck with it... who knows. I wouldn't be surprised if these people were so done with him, and done with yelling at grieving parents, that they intentionally leaked info. At some point you stop caring about whatever scraps the person is paying you. I don't feel bad at all.
JustSomeNobody 4y ago
>is anyone else astounded at how poorly that went for Alex Jones? No. I'm really not. His entire livelihood was based on talking bullshit and selling it. I had zero expectation that he could stop while dealing with some serious real world shit like taking responsibility. FAFO Alex.
skoskie 4y ago
Poorly? He made $165M spewing lies, and got fined $4M. He has $161M of incentive to keep doing what he does.
frellus 4y ago
I think his lawyer was intentionally bagging him. I can't imagine anyone is that bad at their job in not prepping their client for trial, in turning over documents they shouldn't have, in not following up.

drexlspivey 4y ago

I am astounded how someone can sit on the stand and spew lie after lie after lie under oath with no repercussions.

superb-owl 4y ago
I mean...$4M is definitely a repercussion. But yeah, TBH he should probably spend time in jail.
- nrmitchi 4y ago
  $4M is a repercussion for spending years making up conspiracy theories and targetting the families of dead children. Also note that this is compensitory damages only, and hasn't even touch on punitive damagers yet. It has nothing to do with his perjury.
  - superb-owl 4y ago
    Yeah for sure. My impression though is that the perjury played a role in the decision here though...the opposing counsel definitely made a point of highlighting it over and over.
  - khuey 4y ago
    Punitive damages are capped at low amounts in Texas and may not happen at all since they require unanimity (which the jury did not have on the compensatory verdict).
    - dragonwriter 4y ago
      > Punitive damages are capped at low amounts in Texas Low multiples of compensatory damages would be more accurate.
  - dragonwriter 4y ago
    Also, this isn't a suit covering all the Sandy Hook families; I think to covers two. There are at least two other suits already in progress from other families on similar grounds
- snoopy_telex 4y ago
  It’s only 5 days worth of his shows profits. And he received Ed a 7 million bitcoin donation a few days earlier, so there’s zero harm to him.
- bryanlarsen 4y ago
  This is only compensatory damages. Punitive damages are still being considered, and are often a couple of orders of magnitude larger.
- frellus 4y ago
  This wasn't a criminal trial. Although we all want to see our "political enemies" and indecent people everywhere punished, we have to stop calling for people to be jailed without clear crimes being committed. The whole "lock her up" for Hillary that the Trump crowd chanted disgusts me, but likewise so do people calling for Trump to be prosecuted and jailed when they cannot pin an actual crime on him. If we turn into a nation of "show me the man, I'll show you the crime" I will bugger off to a small island somewhere. We cannot rule by mob sentiment, laws matter.
- JJMcJ 4y ago
  An additional $45 million in punitive damages just awarded by the jury.
horsawlarway 4y ago
Frankly - this is where I am. The system falls apart if it can't enforce its own rules, and if we don't see some serious perjury charges here, I think it's a very bad sign. The message will no longer be: It's unacceptable to cheat and lie to win. It will be: Cheat and lie better. -- edit: I'd like to see at least two felony perjury charges against Jones. Ideally with max sentences.
- hotpotamus 4y ago
  I always wonder what truly unlimited free speech would mean. How is it possible that perjury would be a crime? Fraud - just free speech right? And if money is speech, then corruption is just free speech as well. It doesn't really feel like it breaks the system down, it's more like does/did the system even exist?
  - rbanffy 4y ago
    Free speech exists for a reason - to allow a society to introspect and for truth to be explored and expressed. When one monetizes lies and conspiracy theories, manufacturing false narratives as truth, speech ceases to offer a positive value to society and its freedom should be less protected. The justice system is designed to find out the truth about disputed events or actions. Deliberately lying to it is a direct attack on its mission and should be considered a criminal offence.
    - onlyrealcuzzo 4y ago
      > Deliberately lying to it is a direct attack on its mission and should be considered a criminal offence. This is almost the definition of perjury.
  - jokethrowaway 4y ago
    None of the things you mentioned are free speech. The crime is deceiving through lies and fraud (or bribes), speech is just the tool used to achieve that.
kordlessagain 4y ago
His functional processes are corrupt.
- frellus 4y ago
  This is spot on. There is something really psychologically off with him, watching how he behaved on the stand: * fidgeted with everything * couldn't focus * couldn't follow simple instructions * would forget about something said a short time ago * has extreme paranoia, borderline schizophrenic to me
fellowniusmonk 4y ago
yeah, I guess lying under oath is no big deal? I always thought it mattered. I was deposed to give testimony once in a dispute between two other parties and it was nerve wracking to give testimony about a few questions because it was stuff I hadn't thought about in a couple of year. Turns out it's no big deal to lie under oath? This is really troubling, how can we have the rule of law if lying under oath is allowed for some people?
- MisterBastahrd 4y ago
  I'm not a lawyer, but I suspect that judges sorta know that people who are being sued or prosecuted are not exactly going to be reliable witnesses if they testify, and that it'd probably be a bigger deal if this were one of Jones' associates who wasn't on the hook for the money. There's also plenty of time for the judge to dial up some perjury referrals.
  - vlovich123 4y ago
    I could be wrong but my understanding is that technically lawyers are liable if they put someone on the stand they know is going to lie. I’m surprised that isn’t enforced more often.
    - MisterBastahrd 4y ago
      Defendants in any proceeding have the right to not self-incriminate. It's not the judge's responsibility to do the job for a lawyer that a defendant hires. Once they hit that witness stand, they're fair game.
- alfiedotwtf 4y ago
  It probably has to do with how much money you have as well
- felipellrocha 4y ago
  It's only a big deal if you're poor, though. It says so in the Constitution... /s
jebronie 4y ago
A person isn't lying if they think they are telling the truth.
- dymk 4y ago
  That’s a lie
- lbriner 4y ago
  I assume you mean that it's a defence that you thought it was true so you didn't commit a crime. That might be true at the beginning but I'm sure high-profile people like Alex Jones have enough exposure for people to put them straight at which point it becomes less of an excuse!
  - seb1204 4y ago
    That was my initial assumption too. By now I think people like Alex Jones are so far removed that every decent, same and integer human being has left his bubble. Some out of disgust, some after they tried to influence him towards society. In the end they left for their own safety/sanity. This would also be an explanation why his defence was a mess. Amber Heard is a similar case. Lawyers who side with his views and find defendable positions might not be at the top of the lawyer ladder. It's a working theory.
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- rsynnott 4y ago
  While that's broadly true, it's clearly not the case here.
JTbane 4y ago
It's how he became a media personality among right-wingers, make up the most outlandish and inflammatory things to get attention. Plato covered this in the Republic.
iambateman 4y ago
I wouldn’t be surprised if there are perjury charges on the way. Things like that take longer than we would like, but DA’s saw the same stuff we all saw.
titzer 4y ago
If there are no consequences for anything, the system is coming apart. There is a good goddamn reason why lying under oath, or even lying to investigators, is a crime, because truth is the bedrock of accountability. Truth is always the first victim of psychopaths.
- SketchySeaBeast 4y ago
  Doesn't this assume the system ever worked? Is this actually a sign of the decline of civilization, or just that we are able to aware of the status quo now?
- chmod600 4y ago
  Lying to investigators shouldn't be a crime, in my opinion. It too often creates a situation where you can just investigate someone endlessly, find no real evidence, and then convict them of lying based on some flimsy inconsistencies in their statements. I suppose some specific kinds of lies could be crimes, but there should be a high bar for both the type of lie told as well as the certainty that it's really a lie.
  - throwaway0a5e 4y ago
    The feds use this all the time. "plead guilty to this thing we probably can't get a jury conviction on and we'll drop the lying charge we can easily prove"
  - titzer 4y ago
    That's why there is the fifth amendment. > there should be a high bar for both the type of lie told as well as the certainty that it's really a lie. Perjury convictions are a fairly high bar. People don't generally get charged for "flimsy inconsistencies in their statements." Prosecutors, judges, and juries don't have endless time to spend on getting someone.
    - chmod600 4y ago
      Lying to an investigator is not perjury. It's a separate crime.
jefftk 4y ago
Why do you think there won't be repercussions?
- jackmott42 4y ago
  Because we have spent the last 6 years watching dozens and dozens of bad actors get away with it, and never facing repercussion and we have become incredibly cynical of anyone wealthy ever facing justice.
  - jefftk 4y ago
    In this case it's too soon to tell what's going to happen; he could still have additional consequences for the perjury. Link to one of these past perjury situations where there were no repercussions?
    - clankyclanker 4y ago
      It does happen sometimes. My personal favorite example is this guy. I recommend search terms like "james clapper perjury congress". If this fish never got fried in the biggest pan of all, what chance do these little chefs have? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Clapper https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Clapper See: https://jonathanturley.org/2013/07/03/perjury-by-permission-clapper-apologizes-for-false-testimony-and-the-congress-remains-silent/ https://jonathanturley.org/2013/07/03/perjury-by-permission-... https://www.usatoday.com/story/opinion/2018/01/19/james-clappers-perjury-dc-made-men-dont-get-charged-lying-congress-jonathan-turley-column/1045991001/ https://www.usatoday.com/story/opinion/2018/01/19/james-clap... https://apnews.com/article/business-33a88feb083ea35515de3c73e3d854ad https://apnews.com/article/business-33a88feb083ea35515de3c73...
      - jefftk 4y ago
        Jones' perjury was way clearer than Clapper's. Additionally, Clapper was part of the government, testifying on something the government wanted kept quiet.
noasaservice 4y ago
Like what police do regularly? I sat in a jury for a DUI case. Their lead witness, a narcotics cop, lied blatantly on the stand in complete opposition to his deposition. We jurors made up our minds 10 minutes in - not guilty. But this cop? He perjured himself. And not so much as a peep from the judge.
- lostcolony 4y ago
  I think part of the problem with perjury is that if it's detectable you only have hurt your own case, and if it isn't detected it can't be tried. This might be somewhat unique in that the perjury charges relate to hiding evidence as well (rather than just running counter to the evidence). And, obviously, that Alex Jones isn't a cop, so that particular fetishism of law enforcement the US operates under doesn't apply.
AnimalMuppet 4y ago
Why do you assume that there were no repercussions? The jury got to see that he was a liar. Do you think that played no part in their decision? Do you think it will play no part in their decision on punitive damages? Or did you mean something more like prison? The provable perjury happened, what, two days ago? Indictments like that don't happen overnight, but I hope (and maybe even trust) that it is in fact coming.

superb-owl 4y ago

This is a pretty good profile: https://www.nytimes.com/2019/12/05/magazine/alex-jones-infowars.html https://www.nytimes.com/2019/12/05/magazine/alex-jones-infow... That disabused me of the notion of Jones as an Evil Genius. He's just an alcohol-and-attention-fueled nut.

snet0 4y ago
Watching him on Joe Rogan post Sandy-Hook gave me a pause that made me wonder if, under the public persona, there was a genuine human. I can certainly imagine that, if you're getting so heavily rewarded for the OTT absurdity, vitriol and anger, you can eventually get lost in the act. Occam's razor holds true, though. He's just a clown with issues.
- dmlorenzetti 4y ago
  Alex Jones reminds me of the Introduction to Kurt Vonnegut's "Mother Night" -- We are what we pretend to be, so we must be careful about what we pretend to be.
- roguas 4y ago
  Also often times there is some underlying mental illness that carries you there. A lot of people had "funny schitcks" persona for purpose of entertainment - look Stephen Colbert in Colbert report. But even without strong psych knowledge you can clearly feel if this is a parody/pastiche of particular genre. Alex does not give this vibes. Feels like there is a meta-person luring the physical person into some dark stuff.
- lbriner 4y ago
  There are plenty of people out there who are somewhere between mentally ill, people who thinks things are funny or those who will literally do anything for fame or fortune. I mean those people who shared the fake "magnetic covid chip" videos without even a thought for feeding paranoid people who then die because they don't get vaccinated. Or people who create those ridiculous "You won't believe what Barack Obama did next" as pure click bait ads just for the money, without thinking that people then believe this stuff etc.

andsoitis 4y ago

> but I always sort of thought it was just a show Ah. Now think about the other people who you also think are just putting on a show... No, this isn't acting, it is being.

papito 4y ago

In his, uh, defense - years of serving nonsense to gullible chumps who eat up every word of your insane drivel who then send you piles of money, makes one lose their edge in the real world.

300bps 4y ago

It's interesting to me that it turned out he really is just an absolute train-wreck of a person. He seems to me like he is a very successful rabble rouser and promoter. He seems to have made millions of dollars per year fulfilling that role - as much as $800,000 per day: https://www.celebritynetworth.com/articles/celebrity/alex-jones-infowars-made-a-disgusting-amount-of-money-according-to-his-own-accidentally-leaked-text-messages/ https://www.celebritynetworth.com/articles/celebrity/alex-jo... The $4.2 million verdict doesn't seem significant to him, despite his protestations to the contrary. The plaintiffs were seeking $150 million. We'll see how much the $4.2 million is increased during the punitive phase of the trial but so far it seems like a cost of doing business for him.

jliptzin 4y ago

That went terribly for him? $4 million is pocket change for him, he made way more than that off his nonstop lies and conspiracy theories

mattkrause 4y ago
This is the first of several cases, I think. If he were to be charged with perjury, it might take a little while to prepare the indictment too.
ianhawes 4y ago
He has quite a few other pending lawsuits, plus the jury can still find for punitive damages. But you are somewhat correct, filings show that he has spent $15M in legal fees, though his income is around $62M.
vannevar 4y ago
The punitive damages are yet to be determined, and unlike the compensatory phase, for punitives the jury can take into account his net worth.
- jliptzin 4y ago
  Good to know. Do the punitive damages also go to the plaintiffs? Or does it just get funneled into the government slush fund?

faeriechangling 4y ago

Having followed the case, him being absolutely demolished in court repeatedly is no shock given his brazen contempt for the court system and his refusal to abide by any sort of law or rules. I’m most shocked at his own sheer self-destructiveness. What is he going to do now? Claim the courts conspired against him?

bena 4y ago
Why are you shocked? So far, up until this point, he's been able to escalate his behavior with absolutely no lasting consequence. He probably honestly thought he could bluster his way through this. He probably still thinks he can scream his way out of it. It's literally Jerry's move in Rick and Morty, "I just kept crawling and it kept working"
- faeriechangling 4y ago
  It was seeing him be at the top of his niche for so long, him running a successful business with a handful of employees, him just remaining this counterculture icon who seemed to get away with everything, it made me think that he might be more calculated than people gave him credit for. But more than anything, it was this insincere apology he gave regarding sandy hook, after which he seemed to feel above the Sandy Hook’s Survivors right to confront him in a court of law. I just sort of hoped he was a better and smarter person, maybe somebody who believed some kooky things but was doing a show mostly to entertain people and didn’t mean badly. Just seeing such hateful stupidity is surprising and disappointing to me. I might be too naive.

rbanffy 4y ago

I believe 4 million is a very small amount for the hurt he caused.

jackmott 4y ago

Justsignedup 4y ago

No person is a asshat only 30% of the time. They are an asshat who can occasionally hide it. You take an asshat and put him under extreme stress, and the true personality comes out. I can only imagine how working with him was. He may have gone through a bunch of lawyers, and the ones who stuck with it... who knows. I wouldn't be surprised if these people were so done with him, and done with yelling at grieving parents, that they intentionally leaked info. At some point you stop caring about whatever scraps the person is paying you. I don't feel bad at all.

JustSomeNobody 4y ago

>is anyone else astounded at how poorly that went for Alex Jones? No. I'm really not. His entire livelihood was based on talking bullshit and selling it. I had zero expectation that he could stop while dealing with some serious real world shit like taking responsibility. FAFO Alex.

skoskie 4y ago

Poorly? He made $165M spewing lies, and got fined $4M. He has $161M of incentive to keep doing what he does.

frellus 4y ago

I think his lawyer was intentionally bagging him. I can't imagine anyone is that bad at their job in not prepping their client for trial, in turning over documents they shouldn't have, in not following up.