A jury in Texas ordered Alex Jones to pay $4.1 million in damages for defaming the parents of a boy who died in the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting.
The family had asked for $150 million, but it was thought they would get less than that. The damages against Jones would be more interesting than the fact that he could be charged with perjury.
There are a number of revelations that could have devastating consequences for Jones. Jones had lost two default judgments in this case. He is accused of perjury and his phone history is likely to be handed over to the committee. The incompetence of Jones' attorney resulted in both of these developments.
On Wednesday, Mark Bankston confronted Jones on the stand with a series of text messages and emails that seemed to show he had lied in a previous deposition. Jones said he had searched through his phone history and found nothing relevant to the case. Bankston knew that Jones was lying when he received his entire cell phone texting history a day before.
Attorney Mark Bankston told #AlexJones that his attorney messed up and sent him Jones' entire cell phone history. "Did you know that your lawyers messed up and sent me your entire cell phone texting history 12 days ago?" Bankston asked. "You know what perjury is right?" pic.twitter.com/IfIiP5UTIg
— Law&Crime Network (@LawCrimeNetwork) August 3, 2022
Jones should be afraid of being charged with a crime.
Georgetown Law Professor Michael Frisch told me that Alex Jones' high profile and unlikability make him more likely to be charged with a crime. Prosecutors in criminal cases exercise discretion and he is a big get. He nearly asked for it.
Bankston suggested that there was a potential law enforcement investigation of Jones.
The Department of Justice might have jurisdiction in a perjury case, but it is more likely to be a state court prosecutor.
In a hearing on Thursday over a request for a mistrial due to the publicization of the inadvertent disclosure to the jury, Bankston revealed more about how the cell phone data got into his hands, why it was fair game to use in court, and what he may do with it. Jones and anyone with whom he may have had compromising text messages should fear.
Bankston told the court that a 300 gigabyte file was accidentally sent to opposing counsel. The medical files for the Sandy Hook victims should not have been made public. Bankston said that he deleted the medical files. He replied "please disregard" and said he would work on preparing a new link.
Bankston noted to the court that there was no obligation for the lawyer to treat the request as a legally binding request. The Texas Civil Rules of Procedure 193.3 gave Reynal ten days to assert attorney-client privilege over certain portions of the disclosures. Bankston made the revelations in court after Reynal didn't do so.
Bankston spoke to the court.
I am under request from various federal agencies and law enforcement to provide that phone. Absent a ruling from you saying ‘you cannot do that Mr. Bankston,’ then I intend to do so immediately following this hearing. I believe that there is absolutely nothing, nothing that Mr. Reynal has done to fulfill his obligations to protect his client and prevent me from doing that.
The court was told not to allow Bankston to give Jones' cell phone data to federal agencies. Bankston was asked who was asking for the documents.
The committee asked Bankston to turn over the documents.
Judge Gamble laughed and said "I don't know that you can stop that anyways." She told him that she would allow him to research, but that she would not allow him to release the information to the committee.
Gamble was surprised by the mis trial request. I don't believe it's a mis trial based on this. Gamble said at one point that he wasn't sure if he really meant it.
Gamble asked him if he was trying to move for a mistrial or if he was just using it as a ruse.
We are going for a mis trial.
Gamble said that it was the 17th time.
As for whether any of the remaining texts from Jones' search history will see the light of day in this proceeding, another defamation trial, or through another venue, Judge Gamble instructed Reynal to make any requests to mark documents "confidential" under a previous court agreement he might have as soon as She said she would be skeptical of those requests. The judge replied that he was aware of the amount of information that was released. It would have been easy to look through it if it had been disclosed a year ago.
Bankston said that it was unlikely that many of the texts would be covered by the confidentiality agreement. Bankston said that things like Mr. Jones' intimate messages to Roger Stone are not confidential.
Thursday was a bad day for Alex Jones. He doesn't seem to have a lot of options. Frisch told me that a perjury prosecution can't be initiated because Jones won't be able to say this shouldn't have been submitted.
There are a lot of problems for the revelations. Frisch said that the case by Jones could be a basis for a malpractice. If a perjury prosecution goes forward, the situation could get worse. If the documents show that Jones committed perjury, there could be sanctions against him. There is a chance that the court in the Texas defamation case will get involved if Reynal fails to give the court relevant documents.
This isn't the first time that Reynal has embarrassed himself in the courtroom. He apologized for giving Bankston the middle finger during the trial.
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