Jan. 6 committee and federal investigators have asked for Alex Jones’ phone records, Sandy Hook attorney says
By Devan Cole and Oliver Darcy, CNN
The attorney representing two Sandy Hook parents in the Alex Jones defamation case said Thursday that numerous federal and state investigators, including the House panel investigating the January 6, 2021, insurrection, have asked him to hand over text records mistakenly sent to him by the right-wing conspiracy theorist’s law firm.
“I am under request from various federal agencies and law enforcement to provide (the records),” Mark Bankston, the plaintiffs’ attorney, told Judge Maya Guerra Gamble. “Absent a ruling from you saying you cannot do that … I intend to do so immediately following this hearing.”
“I believe that there is absolutely nothing, nothing, that Mr. Reynal has done to fulfill his obligations to protect his client and prevent me from doing that,” he said, referring to Jones’ attorney, Andino Reynal.
“I’ve been asked by the January 6 committee to turn the documents over,” Bankston added later.
Bankston declined to specify to CNN which other investigators outside of the House committee expressed interest in obtaining Jones’ text records.
Bankston revealed in court on Wednesday that Reynal’s firm, in an apparent mishap, sent him two years of cell phone records that included every text message Jones had sent.
Jones was a central player on January 6. He was at the rally before the riot though he did not storm the Capitol. The Infowars founder testified virtually before the January 6 committee earlier this year, but he said he repeatedly asserted his Fifth Amendment right to remain silent during the interview.
The judge overseeing the case advised Reynal to take some time while they awaited a verdict to research a legal argument to stop Bankston from disclosing information to the January 6 committee and others.
Later Thursday, the jury hearing the case determined that Jones will have to pay the parents of a victim of the mass shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School more than $4 million for defamation and infliction of emotional distress.
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CNN’s Tierney Sneed contributed to this report.
