Alex Jones accused of lying under oath Transcript

Speaker 1: (00:00)
Did you know that 12 days ago, 12 days ago, your attorneys messed up and sent me an entire digital copy of your entire cell phone with every text message you’ve sent for the past two years. That is how I know you lied to me when you said you didn’t have text messages about Sandy Hook.

Shepard Smith: (00:20)
That from the lawyer for the parents of six year old Jesse Lewis. He was murdered in the Sandy Hook massacre. Alex Jones’ defamation case now in the hands of a jury. A judge already found him liable, but now this jury will decide how much he has to pay the parents. Jones testified under oath he could not find any of his text messages or emails that mention Sandy Hook. The attorney for the parents read some of Jones messages in the courtroom today. This one about an Infowars article claiming a hospital was using dummies in a Coronavirus unit. Jones suddenly broke into a coughing fit during the exchange. Listen.

Speaker 1: (00:59)
Mr. Watson says this is a video of a medical student training to intubate. Makes us look ridiculous. Suggesting this means COVID is fake. Sandy Hook all over again. Did I read that correctly?

Alex Jones: (01:14)
Yes.

Speaker 1: (01:15)
Go to the next message. What’d you tell Mr. Watson?

Alex Jones: (01:26)
I get it.

Shepard Smith: (01:27)
The lawyer also read messages that he said disputed Jones claims that he lost millions of dollars after companies including Facebook and Twitter kicked him off their platforms. Jones claimed during the trial the most the company ever made after the deplatforming was $200,000 a day. But documents from his emails show the company made as much as 800 grand on some days, according to the parents’ attorney. Jones accused the lawyer of cherry-picking numbers from the documents. Jesse Lewis parents are asking for 150 million bucks in damages. In closing arguments today, Jones attorney said the plaintiffs didn’t prove that Alex Jones caused them actual harm. He suggested the jury award the parents just $8, one for each compensation charge that they’re considering.

Andino Reynal: (02:17)
Ask yourselves who’s really responsible for these parents pain? Is it Adam Lanza’s mother who bought him the gun? Is it Adam Lanza who murdered her and then murdered 26 children? Is it the mainstream media misreporting the facts and events around Sandy Hook?

Shepard Smith: (02:50)
Jones lawyer closed his argument with the famous poem about the Holocaust. First they came for the communists and I did not speak. You know the rest of how that goes. NBC News legal analyst, Danny Cevallos now. Danny, Alex Jones said he was mistaken and not a tech guy when accused of lying about the text messages, the same text messages that the lawyer went, your lawyer accidentally sent all these to me and that’s why I have them. How’s all that for a defense?

Danny Cevallos: (03:18)
Not so great. This is flabbergasting on many levels. Number one, that Alex Jones wasn’t apparently prepared by his lawyers that they had disclosed this phone and all of its information. The plaintiff’s attorney essentially pointed in court at defense council and said we notified him in Texas you have 10 days. It’s called the snapback provision because sometimes look, lawyers do it. We inadvertently disclose information we didn’t mean to disclose. You have 10 days, apparently 12 days it expired and apparently Jones’ lawyers knew and apparently they didn’t tell Jones to get him ready for the fact that he was going to be hit with the equivalent of a judicial folding chair in the middle of court with this confrontation. A lot of questions I have, and it looks like a lot of mistakes were made.

Shepard Smith: (04:05)
Hey Danny, do you think the jury’s going to come anywhere near the amount the parents are asking for 150 million?

Danny Cevallos: (04:11)
Yes, they could. This is a case where it’s been damages only, and it’s the kind of damages that you don’t quantify as you do a normal injury type cases with medical reports, medical bills, things that you can put up on a board and underline. This is just however angry this jury is. And based on what I and everybody else has seen throughout the last couple weeks on TV, they’ve got plenty of reasons to be angry at Alex Jones, including how he was caught today apparently misremembering or not really searching when he said he searched his phone for information.

Danny Cevallos: (04:49)
It was a really bad day for the defense. Sometimes the only approach you have as the defense is be nice or take it easy on me when you decide to award damages. And sometimes it felt like that’s the approach the lawyer was going for, not Alex Jones. Alex Jones believed he was innocent throughout. He believed he did nothing wrong. He believed that he didn’t have any text messages or, worse, maybe he was making up that he searched for them.

Shepard Smith: (05:14)
The jury has the case. We’ll see what they decide. Danny Cevallos. Thank you.

Shepard Smith: (05:19)
Shepherd Smith here, thanks for watching CNBC on YouTube.