The House select committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, attacks on the US Capitol has reportedly obtained text messages from far-right conspiracy theorist Alex Jones after his legal team accidentally sent two years of his phone records to attorneys in a defamation case against him .
CNN reported on Monday that the texts had been turned over by the lawyer who represented parents of a Sandy Hook school shooting victim, who were awarded $45.2 million in punitive damages in their civil trial against Jones.
Jones had pushed the conspiracy theory that the 2012 shooting that killed 20 children and six teachers at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn., was a hoax, and that the parents were “crisis actors.”
The Jan. 6 committee subpoenaed Jones in November of last year for his alleged role in planning and funding the events that transpired that day.
He appeared for a deposition, but said that he invoked his Fifth Amendment right to remain silent “almost 100 times.”
The committee has accused Jones and other right-wing figures of stoking the rioters leading up to and during the Capitol breach, as well as peddling former President Trump’s false claim that the 2020 presidential election was stolen.
Jones breached the restricted area on the Capitol grounds on Jan. 6, though he didn’t go into the building.
The exact dates of Jones’s phone records aren’t yet clear, but the committee has expressed interest in what Jones may have said in texts leading up to the attacks.
A spokesperson for the Jan. 6 committee declined to comment on whether the texts had been received.
The Hill has also reached out to the Justice Department and the Sandy Hook parents’ attorney, Mark Bankston.
.