Uploaded November 2019 | Updated September 2026, 2 weeks ago
Full Length Deposition of Alex Jones, Infowars Host,
Concerning Sandy Hook Coverage
In the world of conspiracy theorists, Alex Jones and Wolfgang Halbig fueled each other’s darkest tendencies.
Soon after the Dec. 14, 2012, mass shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn., Mr. Jones, the right-wing provocateur, began spreading outlandish theories that the killing of 20 first graders and six educators was staged by the government and victims’ families as part of an elaborate plot to confiscate Americans’ firearms.
Many of the most noxious claims originated in the mind of Mr. Halbig, a retired Florida public school official who became fixated on what he called “this supposed tragedy” at Sandy Hook. Court records and a previously unreleased deposition given by Mr. Jones in one of a set of defamation lawsuits brought against him by the families of 10 Sandy Hook victims show how he and Mr. Halbig used each other to pursue their obsession and promote it across the internet.
Over several years, Mr. Jones gave Mr. Halbig’s views an audience by inviting him to be a guest on Infowars, his radio and online show. Infowars gave Mr. Halbig a camera crew and a platform for fund-raising, even as Mr. Halbig repeatedly visited Newtown, demanding thousands of pages of public records, including photos of the murder scene, the children’s bodies and receipts for the cleanup of “bodily fluids, brain matter, skull fragments and around 45 to 60 gallons of blood.”
A spotlight on the people reshaping our politics. A conversation with voters across the country. And a guiding hand through the endless news cycle, telling you what you really need to know.
Given practical support and visibility by Mr. Jones, Mr. Halbig hounded families of the victims and other residents of Newtown, and promoted a baseless tale that Avielle Richman, a first grader killed at Sandy Hook, was still alive.
The deposition and its details about Mr. Jones’s operation and his interactions with Mr. Halbig were made public on Friday, days after Avielle Richman’s father, Jeremy Richman, killed himself in Newtown’s Edmond Town Hall, where Avielle Foundation, a nonprofit organization dedicated to brain science that the family established in their daughter’s name, had an office.
The deposition and records are part of a defamation lawsuit against Mr. Jones brought by Scarlett Lewis, whose son Jesse Lewis died at Sandy Hook, moving forward in Texas. The families of 10 Sandy Hook victims are suing Mr. Jones, Infowars, and associates such as Mr. Halbig in four separate lawsuits, one in Connecticut brought by eight victims’ families and a first responder, and three in Texas brought by the parents of two more victims.
In the videotaped deposition, conducted this month, Mr. Jones says under oath that his sources for reports aired on Infowars include conspiracy theorists like Mr. Halbig, random emailers and anonymous users on the chat room 4chan. Mr. Jones claims the same First Amendment protection provided traditional news media for his false claims.
Mr. Jones acknowledged in the deposition that Mr. Halbig had been a considerable source of information for him about Sandy Hook. Asked by a lawyer for the families if he would agree that Mr. Halbig was “a raving lunatic,” Mr. Jones responded: “He seemed very credible and put together earlier on, but — I can’t remember the exact number — he seemed to get agitated about four years ago, three years ago.”
Mr. Halbig, 72, lives in a gated community in Florida with his wife and a white Havanese dog named Coco. He calls himself a “national school safety consultant” and former Florida state trooper, though his résumé suggests he held the trooper job for at most a year in the mid-1970s. A 1999 Orlando Sentinel report quotes him as Seminole County public schools’ security director, saying a school shooting “can happen any time, anywhere.”
“I’ve said nobody died,” Mr. Halbig said in an interview last month, but “I’ve never ever been given the documents to form a true and honest opinion. We want to know the truth so we can teach other school districts to prevent this.” Mr. Halbig did not respond to emails and telephone messages requesting comment for this article.
While not the only person to pursue and torment the families, Mr. Halbig has been particularly relentless. And as Infowars boosted Mr. Halbig’s profile, the victims’ families and Newtown officials have struggled to stop him. He repeatedly has asked Newtown educators to give him the identities of children from the Sandy Hook choir who performed in a salute to the victims at the 2013 Super Bowl, seeking to “prove” Avielle Richman and other dead children attended.
NY Times
nytimes.com/2019/03/29/us/politics/alex-jones-infowars-sandy-hook.html
Full Length Deposition of Alex Jones, Infowars Host,
Concerning Sandy Hook Coverage
In the world of conspiracy theorists, Alex Jones and Wolfgang Halbig fueled each other’s darkest tendencies.
Soon after the Dec. 14, 2012, mass shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn., Mr. Jones, the right-wing provocateur, began spreading outlandish theories that the killing of 20 first graders and six educators was staged by the government and victims’ families as part of an elaborate plot to confiscate Americans’ firearms.
Many of the most noxious claims originated in the mind of Mr. Halbig, a retired Florida public school official who became fixated on what he called “this supposed tragedy” at Sandy Hook. Court records and a previously unreleased deposition given by Mr. Jones in one of a set of defamation lawsuits brought against him by the families of 10 Sandy Hook victims show how he and Mr. Halbig used each other to pursue their obsession and promote it across the internet.
Over several years, Mr. Jones gave Mr. Halbig’s views an audience by inviting him to be a guest on Infowars, his radio and online show. Infowars gave Mr. Halbig a camera crew and a platform for fund-raising, even as Mr. Halbig repeatedly visited Newtown, demanding thousands of pages of public records, including photos of the murder scene, the children’s bodies and receipts for the cleanup of “bodily fluids, brain matter, skull fragments and around 45 to 60 gallons of blood.”
A spotlight on the people reshaping our politics. A conversation with voters across the country. And a guiding hand through the endless news cycle, telling you what you really need to know.
Given practical support and visibility by Mr. Jones, Mr. Halbig hounded families of the victims and other residents of Newtown, and promoted a baseless tale that Avielle Richman, a first grader killed at Sandy Hook, was still alive.
The deposition and its details about Mr. Jones’s operation and his interactions with Mr. Halbig were made public on Friday, days after Avielle Richman’s father, Jeremy Richman, killed himself in Newtown’s Edmond Town Hall, where Avielle Foundation, a nonprofit organization dedicated to brain science that the family established in their daughter’s name, had an office.
The deposition and records are part of a defamation lawsuit against Mr. Jones brought by Scarlett Lewis, whose son Jesse Lewis died at Sandy Hook, moving forward in Texas. The families of 10 Sandy Hook victims are suing Mr. Jones, Infowars, and associates such as Mr. Halbig in four separate lawsuits, one in Connecticut brought by eight victims’ families and a first responder, and three in Texas brought by the parents of two more victims.
In the videotaped deposition, conducted this month, Mr. Jones says under oath that his sources for reports aired on Infowars include conspiracy theorists like Mr. Halbig, random emailers and anonymous users on the chat room 4chan. Mr. Jones claims the same First Amendment protection provided traditional news media for his false claims.
Mr. Jones acknowledged in the deposition that Mr. Halbig had been a considerable source of information for him about Sandy Hook. Asked by a lawyer for the families if he would agree that Mr. Halbig was “a raving lunatic,” Mr. Jones responded: “He seemed very credible and put together earlier on, but — I can’t remember the exact number — he seemed to get agitated about four years ago, three years ago.”
Mr. Halbig, 72, lives in a gated community in Florida with his wife and a white Havanese dog named Coco. He calls himself a “national school safety consultant” and former Florida state trooper, though his résumé suggests he held the trooper job for at most a year in the mid-1970s. A 1999 Orlando Sentinel report quotes him as Seminole County public schools’ security director, saying a school shooting “can happen any time, anywhere.”
“I’ve said nobody died,” Mr. Halbig said in an interview last month, but “I’ve never ever been given the documents to form a true and honest opinion. We want to know the truth so we can teach other school districts to prevent this.” Mr. Halbig did not respond to emails and telephone messages requesting comment for this article.
While not the only person to pursue and torment the families, Mr. Halbig has been particularly relentless. And as Infowars boosted Mr. Halbig’s profile, the victims’ families and Newtown officials have struggled to stop him. He repeatedly has asked Newtown educators to give him the identities of children from the Sandy Hook choir who performed in a salute to the victims at the 2013 Super Bowl, seeking to “prove” Avielle Richman and other dead children attended.
NY Times
nytimes.com/2019/03/29/us/politics/alex-jones-infowars-sandy-hook.html
