Thread by @SebastianMurdoc

Good morning from Austin, day 2 of the Alex Jones defamation trial. Court begins in about 30 mins. Stick around for updates (pic from yesterday)

Doesn't look like Jones is showing up to his trial today. Yesterday he didn't come back from lunch, but instead went on Infowars to complain about the trial.

On Infowars yesterday, Jones told his followers to come to the courthouse and protest what he called a "kangaroo court." No protesters are here.

The jury was seated and court was ready, but a witness for Jones' legal team is 15 minutes late so jury was sent to the back room for now while we wait.

Daria Karpova has arrived. Karpova is a producer and corporate rep for Infowars.

Mark Bankston, attorney for the plaintiffs, continues his questioning from yesterday.

Bankston is going through a list of the many videos Infowars made calling the shooting a hoax, including one 2013 video titled "Sandy Hook AR-15 Hoax? Still No School Surveillance Footage."

After listing several 2013 vids where Infowars said the shooting was a hoax, Bankston asks Karpova if the claims are true.

"I think it would be true because, again, [AJ] was still researching things & w/ contradictions in the media, he thought it was his duty to investigate."

Bankston now bringing up Wolfgang Halbig, notorious Sandy Hook conspiracy theorist. Karpova says Halbig "had the credentials to question this event and did have several questions." More on Halbig here. He hates when I share this story.

huffpost.com/entry/wolgang-…

Bankston plays a 2014 video where Jones says there were people "doing fake crying" and actors playing parts before he gives Halbig the floor for his "16 points" questioning the shooting.

"You're the expert, break it down for us," he tells Halbig.

Bankston: You don't dispute that ppl definitely were warning the company that Halbig's credentials were fake, yes?

Karpova: I can't remember.

Bankston brings up Karpova's deposition, when Bankston asked if Halbig's credentials were true or reliable.

"I'm not responsible for making sure the claims of our guests are all accurate," Karpova said at the time.

Karpova's deposition contradicts her previous answer on the stand just now, when she said it "is part of my responsibility" to check the credentials of a guest. In her deposition, she said she wasn't responsible.

Karpova: "We think our audience is smart and we rely on them to figure out for themselves what they think is true and not, but we present our opinion."

Bankston brings up a 2014 video titled: "Sandy Hook officials caught in coverup and running scared."

Karpova: "The title is meant to catch the audience's [attention], and to watch the video for more details."

Bankston plays video of Halbig calling the shooting a hoax and complaining he gets threats and harassment (Halbig has routinely harassed reporters, myself included, with emails and phone calls)

Calls the school "dirty" and says "all they have to do is answer 16 simple questions"

Halbig says in the Infowars video: "Until they answer those questions, I can tell you children did not die, teachers did not die on Dec. 14, 2012."

Bankston brings up a 2014 email when an employee at Infowars, Matt, emailed another employee, Louis, to tell him one of his personal friends is being caught up in the Sandy Hook hoax, and to delete comments that might reference his friend.

"Last time it involved going thru his Facebook page and pointing out friends with Jewish names and things like that," the email read. "John is a character, but not even in the Sandy Hook time zone. If you see it, delete it."

After showing a list of several videos about Sandy Hook, Bankston points out many more videos weren't archived and so are lost. So if someone said the videos on the list were the total amount Infowars covered SH, they'd be wrong, which...

Is what lawyer Andino Reynal argued yesterday in court, claiming there was only 27 hours of video from 2012-2017 about Sandy Hook. Bankston argues there's likely many more hours that were broadcast live but never archived.

In another vid, Jones falsely claimed the FBI reported no deaths at Sandy Hook.

Bankston: "Might be the kind of thing you'd want to verify with the FBI, huh?"

Karpova: "Alex was relying on the writers he mentioned on the video. Alex lets the writers do their own research."

Halbig again given a platform on Infowars in another vid shown:

Halbig: "These are all scripted events, specially shot, filmed, choreographed for CNN to have fun with it.

Jones: "Absolutely, and we caught them with the bluescreen."

Karpova calls the format of live Infowars interviews "beautiful."

"The genuine-ness of the broadcast is what people are attracted to," Karpova testifies. "[Jones] is not lying about what he’s saying."

A former writer of Infowars emailed the company to say he knows Lenny Pozner, whose 6-year-old son Noah was killed, and to stop calling his dead son fake.

"Mr. Pozner’s son was brutally murdered. I have met with this man and seen verified documents that his son was murdered."

The email continued: "You are traveling down a road that will lead to serious lawful consequences...for spreading verifiably false info."

Important to note Lenny Pozner was a fan of Infowars before Jones spread lies about his dead child. He tried emailing Infowars asking them to stop. More from yesterday's thread:

https://twitter.com/SebastianMurdoc/status/1552050344905134087

Infowars held a "debate" between Wolfgang Halbig and Pete Johnson. Johnson correctly said the shooting did happen, and was not fake. But "Infowars ultimately sided with Wolfgang, kept having him on the show and kept repeating things he was saying," Bankston says.

Bankston: "Infowars had documents in its corporate files establishing the fact that Halbig was harassing parents, correct?"

Karpova: "I would need to see the documents you’re referring to."

Bankston brings out the docs to show her.

Judge Gamble to Karpova: "You need to focus on the question you’re asked, not just what you feel like saying."

Karpova: "I'm sorry I just can't truthfully answer..." before trailing off.

Gamble says she doesn't want apologies and Karpova had months to prepare.

Bankston reads an email from Halbig to a Sandy Hook parent, where he rails about how the school itself was "dirty" and how they failed their non-verbal child by sending her to "That filthy and deplorable school with all that toxic waste. We call this child endangerment."

20 minute break.

Owen Shroyer has been spotted in the court. Here's what Jones' sidekick has been up to: huffpost.com/entry/alex-jon…

Back. More on Halbig, who in 2014 emailed a mother of a Sandy Hook child to tell her she failed her non-verbal child.

Karpova defends Halbig: "I just think he's appalled."

Bankston: "So am I."

It's just video, after video, after video of Jones saying the shooting didn't happen. And this is only from 2014.

Karpova was supposed to review all the videos for her preparation for today, per the court's instruction. She clearly has not.

In another video clip, Jones attacks parent Lenny Pozner, then broadcasts his name and email. Again, Pozner had emailed Infowars begging them to stop the lies.

In a clip, a listener talks about Pozner issuing complaints against people making videos about his kid

"Lenny if you’re listening, your day is coming my friend, it’s coming."

Jones says: "They’ve made a major mistake by involving us."

Listener: Go after them, Alex. Crush them.

Infowars then attacked Lenny's HONR network, a nonprofit for the victims of mass shootings, later in the show.

Infowars editor Rob Dew then posted a printed out map of the group's address.

Karpova, who did not prepare at all, tells Bankston "I prepared the best I could."

In a video clip, Wolfgang Halbig tells people to support Infowars and to also give him donations.

Karpova: "Alex likes to help the little guy"

Bankston: "In this case, the little guy is the guy sending harassing emails to the parents of Sandy Hook."

Jones says in a clip: "You should be praying for Wolfgang, go to his website and support him. He’s fighting for all of us."

He was fighting the parents of dead children who simply wanted the harassment to stop.

Karpova getting angry now, says to Bankston:

"I believe [the parents'] grief is being used. You’re their enemy because you’re lying to them and using their grief to make bank. This reasonable jury here will see that."

Bankston shows email from a law student, sent to Infowars staff, calling out Halbig's many lies. "This man seems to be grasping and stretching," the email said.

An employee forwarded that email to news director Rob Dew, showing at least one employee knew the dangers of Halbig.

A former employee said this about Rob Dew: "He was overzealous to receive any type of hint that perhaps this might have been a phony act, a staged act. Any type of whisper that came through to him, he would celebrate.”

More here: huffpost.com/entry/infowars…

Halbig sent a photo of children he claimed were the Sandy Hook kids still alive, posted on Infowars.

Bankston: Do you understand how wrong it was to encourage this man’s delusions like that?

Karpova: We did the best at the time but it wasn’t something that was done on purpose.

On March 10, 2015, Halbig emailed plaintiff Scarlett Lewis to claim she lied when she said she ran across the fire department's parking lot towards the school the day of the shooting.

Is this harassment?

"I don't have any comment on that," Karpova says.

And with that, we break for lunch. Back in hour and a half.

We are back. Alex Jones is now here in court.

Karpova still on witness stand. Bankston reading a 2015 internal Infowars email highlighting topics they want to cover. It includes: chemtrails, Boston bombing, the border, and Sandy Hook.

Bankston plays video of Infowars contributor Dan Badondi harassing Sandy Hook officials.

"The sandy hook truth is coming out, you’re going to jail, you’re going to jail," Dan Badondi yelled at them.

Karpova said in her deposition that Badondi is "a good reporter"

Karpova: A good reporter is supposed to get out there and find the truth no matter what. It's not my style the way [Badondi] did it, but he's his own person.

Bankston: It's Infowars style, they loved this, didn't they?

Karpova: I don't know that.

In an Infowars video, Rob Dew gleefully tells Dan Badondi the official Badondi confronted in Newtown "looked frightened."

Days after Badondi went to Newtown to harass officials, he asked Dew if he could cover a July 4th parade. Dew said no, go cover Sandy Hook again.

Reynal keeps trying to make objections, Judge Gamble keeps slapping them down.

Wolfgang Halbig had been warned about trespassing on a Catholic school's property in Newtown in a 2015 email telling him to stop, adding he would be removed "forcibly if necessary"

Halbig alleged the kids at that private school were actually crisis actor kids used to fake SH.

Once again, Bankston must remind Karpova that she is supposed to know sources and videos.

"You are not prepared to talk about the sourcing of these videos, are you?" Bankston says.

Gamble now dismissing jury to figure this out.

Gamble says Karpova IS testifying as the corporate rep for Infowars, despite attorney Reynal saying she's not.

"She does in fact speak for Free Speech Systems," Gamble says.

Gamble explaining to jury that Karpova is, in fact, representing Infowars. She is "required" to have had prepared to speak about sources and videos she was given ahead of time for today's testimony.

Clearly she did not prepare.

Karpova has claimed Jones is the sole source of information for topics she won't answer. She also said she never spoke to Jones for her preparation for today.

"I know how the show is run," she says. But nothing else.

Bankston: "I really need you to answer the question: You were asked to be prepared on the individuals involved in these videos. Any testimony, you're speaking as the voice of the Infowars corporation, correct?"

Karpova: "Yes"

Infowars platformed Jim Fetzer, who authored the book "Nobody Died At Sandy Hook."

Bankston: Infowars understood this was not a reliable person, you’d agree with that?

Karpova: At that time, I’m not sure if Rob [Dew] realized it or not.

Fetzer ultimately had to pay nearly half a million dollars to parent Lenny Pozner for the lies he told and that Infowars helped promote. A real fuck around and find out situation.

huffpost.com/entry/sandy-ho…

Paul Joseph Watson sent an email to Jones telling him they would get hammered for all the Sandy Hook lies. Karpova continues to deflect when asked about it. You can read more about that here: huffpost.com/entry/paul-wat…

Bankston shows an Infowars story that claimed two anchors "faked a satellite interview in the same parking lot" of Sandy Hook. But a photo of the news clip used as the main image clearly shows the word "Phoenix."

The parking lot was in Phoenix, Arizona. Not Newtown.

Judge Gamble again tells Karpova: "Answer the question he asks you, not what you feel like saying."

Another break, this time 30 mins because "everyone needs it" Gamble says.

Alex Jones gets upset with me. Says I “pretend” to be a journalist. I remind him he’s literally on trial for his journalistic failures. He calls me a pirate.

I asked how he thought Karpova did, he told me HuffPost has been “entirely discredited.” Ok.

Court back in session. Alex appears to have left for the day.

Bankston going through Halbig's emails where he makes more claims of a hoax. He CC's everyone. Literally: News publications, law enforcement, people he's met. Unfortunately I get these emails too.

Bankston going to Karpova's deposition to show statements about Halbig.

"It doesn't creep you out to have Halbig showing up at people's houses...?" Bankston asked in the depo.

"It strikes me as an impassioned man doing an investigation of something he believes in," she said.

Karpova says she stands by her previous statement calling Halbig an "impassioned man"

Bankston: Years after Infowars had possession of all these emails from Wolfgang Halbig, they were still repeating the things he said in 2017

Karpova: It appears so, yes.

Bankston brings up Jones' 2017 interview with Megyn Kelly. Karpova says Kelly "entrapped" Jones after promising not to bring up his Sandy Hook lies but doing it anyway.

Jones "skips through lines" when he's on air because "his mind is racing," Karpova says in a defense of her boss.

In a 2017 program, Jones says: "The CIA visited Adam Lanza and recruited him before the shooting. I don’t know what really happened with SH folks, we’ve looked at it from both sides, it's phony as a 3 dollar bill."

Bankston plays segment of Jones hawking his "brain supplements". From 2015 - 2018, Jones sold $165 million in product. More here:

huffpost.com/entry/infowars…

Jones says buying his products is a "revolutionary act" by helping Infowars fight back against "the globalists."

Bankston says Jones also says "the globalists" when he talks about those who "staged" Sandy Hook.

Bankston has no more questions for Karpova. Reynal will now cross-examine. Karpova has been a terrible witness for the defense so far.

Reynal asks about Karpova's work history with Infowars. She started in 2015, listened to Jones sometimes, found him "bombastic."

"I didn't dislike it," she says.

Reynal makes the claim that Infowars' coverage on SH made up less than 1 half of 1 percent of their overall coverage.

Karpova: "In my opinion, less"

Reynal asks if part of the appeal is the unscripted nature of the show. Karpova agrees. Karpova adds that people on the show are "allowed to be creative and express their opinion."

Reynal: Did [Jones] do a segment on how the plastics in water were affecting the breeding habits of frogs so they would not reproduce?

Karpova: Yes. He's done segments on that and they've become memes. He's gone back to it and showed how...frogs morphed into opposite sex

After objections from Bankston, Judge Gamble tells Reynal:

"I think you could do a better job of not leading a witness who works for your client."

"Mr. Reynal, you need to stop leading the witness. This is not an actual cross-examination" Judge Gamble says again.

After Reynal tried to play a video that hadn't yet been admitted to the court, Judge Gamble calls it early and dismisses the jury for the day.

That's all from me for the day. I'll be back in court again tomorrow. See ya then.

Huge blowup from Reynal to Bankston after Judge Gamble admonished Reynal for disrespectful behavior by repeatedly calling plaintiff's attorneys "personal injury lawyers."

After judge leaves, Reynal starts yelling at Bankston and gives him the middle finger.

Here's my story on today's trial, focusing on Wolfgang Halbig, who is definitely going to spam me emails and phone calls about it. huffpost.com/entry/alex-jon…