Infowars’ Jones “Playing A Character,” Attorney Says

The lawyer for Alex Jones, founder and host of conspiracy theory site Infowars, said in a recent custody hearing that Jones is “a performance artist,” and the character he plays on air is nothing like his true personality. Attorney Randall Wilhite, at a pretrial hearing, said that judging Jones based on what he says would be akin to judging Jack Nicholson based on his portrayal of The Joker in “Batman.” But Kelly Jones – who seeks sole or joint custody of the couple’s three children – says her ex-husband is “not a stable person,” and that he broadcasts from home, which exposes the children to incendiary behavior. A jury selected at the Travis County Courthouse will be asked to determine in the next two weeks whether there is a difference between Jones’ on-air persona and his private life. Through Infowars’ substantial online following, Jones has peddled conspiracy theories asserting that the September 11, 2001 attacks were perpetrated by the U.S. government, that the 2012 shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn., was a hoax, and last year’s ‘Pizzagate,’ which falsely accused top Democratic officials of being involved in a satanic child pornography ring centered around Comet Ping Pong, a pizzeria in Washington, D.C. That conspiracy theory led a man to fire a semiautomatic rifle in Comet Ping Pong in December 2016.