New defense lawyer switches strategy in Alex Jones case [View all]
In a stunning last-minute change of strategy, the new attorney representing Alex Jones in a lawsuit brought by a Sandy Hook shooting victim’s mother said Wednesday that he will seek to have the case dismissed solely on the legal grounds that a claim of intentional infliction of emotional distress cannot be brought by someone who was never named by Jones, even if Jones knew what he was saying was not true.
“This is a legal case that’s far bigger than Alex Jones, and our goal is to change the way this case is handled so that the legal case is the focus,” attorney Robert Barnes told the American-Statesman outside the Travis County courtroom of state District Judge Scott Jenkins, asserting that the novel questions raised by the case and the way those questions are now cleanly framed make it ripe for appeal all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court.
“They love pure questions of law, and this a hot topic,” Barnes said. “This is the case that’s going to decide the future of the free press.”
The issue, unsettled in Texas law, is whether a member of a group or class of people — in this case the parent of a child killed in the 2012 Newtown, Conn., school shooting that Jones on his radio and internet platform InfoWars sometimes characterized as a hoax — can sue for intentional infliction of emotional distress, even if that person was never individually identified in Jones’ coverage. Barnes is presenting it as a First Amendment and press freedom case, he said, because Jones is operating as a member of the press, which under Texas law includes anyone who shares information with the public for money.
Read more: https://www.statesman.com/news/20190403/new-defense-lawyer-switches-strategy-in-alex-jones-case
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