WATERBURY, Conn. — According to lawyers representing the families suing talk show host Alex Jones, the defendant has requested the case be moved to Federal Court.
"Around midnight last night, just hours before a hearing at which a state court was expected to order that his accountant and executive assistant be deposed, Jones sought to have the case transferred to federal court," said an emailed statement from the families' attorney, Chris Mattei from Koskoff, Koskoff & Bieder.
“The families brought this case more than two years ago to hold Alex Jones responsible for his abusive claims. On the eve of being ordered to make both his accountant and executive assistant available for deposition, he filed a motion just a few minutes before midnight last night seeking to delay the process by moving the entire case to federal court, a known stalling tactic that Sandy Hook families have seen and defeated before in other high-profile cases. Alex Jones is terrified that the depositions will reveal the truth about him and his business practices. Every attempt to delay justice only strengthens the resolve of the Sandy Hook families.”
The families of eight victims of the 2012 shooting at the Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, and an FBI agent who responded to the massacre are suing Jones, Infowars and others for promoting a theory that the shooting was a hoax. A 20-year-old gunman killed 20 first-graders, six educators and himself at the school, after having killed his mother at their Newtown home.
The case is being heard in Waterbury.
The plaintiffs said they have been subjected to harassment and death threats from Jones' followers because of the hoax conspiracy.
Jones has since said he believes the shooting occurred.
