Alex Jones may have lied in court, but perjury charge would be unusual

By Daniel Wiessner

(Reuters) -Revelations that conspiracy theorist Alex Jones might have lied on the stand in a defamation lawsuit by mother and father of a kid slain within the 2012 Sandy Hook mass capturing made for a dramatic second in a high-profile trial, however it could be uncommon for prosecutors to observe via with perjury costs, attorneys mentioned.

A jury in Austin, Texas, on Friday mentioned Jones ought to pay $45.2 million in punitive damages – on prime of the $4.1 million in compensatory damages it had already awarded to the plaintiffs – for falsely claiming the capturing was a hoax.

In the course of the closing day of testimony on Wednesday, a lawyer for the mother and father made the weird disclosure that Jones’ lawyer had inadvertently despatched him a file containing textual content messages from Jones’ telephone concerning the Sandy Hook capturing.

The revelation was vital as a result of Jones has maintained that he had searched his telephone for such messages and by no means discovered any.

The lawyer for the mother and father, Mark Bankston, in questioning Jones concerning the texts, requested him if he knew the definition of perjury.

Jones replied that the suggestion he had lied was “ridiculous.”

Travis County Choose Maya Guerra Gamble on Thursday denied Jones’ movement for a mistrial primarily based on the disclosure.

Perjury costs are uncommon in Texas, even when events in civil lawsuits are caught giving false testimony, based on felony protection attorneys who apply within the state.

However prosecutors in liberal Travis County, the place Jones’ radio present and right-wing webcast InfoWars is predicated, might be extra inclined to cost Jones due to his incendiary conservative views and his mockery of the authorized system through the defamation case, mentioned Lisa Shapiro Strauss, a lawyer in Houston.

“The political motivation could also be there to make an instance of him,” Strauss mentioned.

Attorneys for Jones and the household that sued him, and the Travis County District Lawyer’s workplace, didn’t reply to requests for remark.

If Jones had been charged it could seemingly be for aggravated perjury, a felony punishable by two 10 years in jail, as a result of his feedback had been made in courtroom testimony, attorneys mentioned. Mendacity beneath oath outdoors of courtroom, reminiscent of in a deposition or police assertion, is a misdemeanor in Texas.

Prosecutors must carefully evaluate Jones’ testimony concerning the textual content messages earlier than deciding whether or not to deliver a perjury cost, based on Benson Varghese, a Fort Price, Texas-based protection lawyer.

Varghese mentioned that if Jones has claimed solely that he couldn’t discover the messages, prosecutors may have a tough time proving that he deliberately lied about their existence.

“The mere proven fact that the textual content messages exist doesn’t essentially imply he discovered them” after which lied about it, Varghese mentioned.

Gamble, the decide presiding over the defamation case, can refer the matter to native prosecutors, which might seemingly increase the probabilities that Jones is charged, attorneys mentioned.

Gamble has repeatedly admonished Jones and his authorized staff throughout 4 years of litigation within the case and has advised that Jones lied beneath oath about complying with discovery requests and his firm’s monetary scenario.

Earlier this week, the decide warned Jones towards mendacity on the stand, telling him, “Simply since you declare to suppose one thing is true doesn’t make it true.”

However Gamble has kept away from imposing sanctions on Jones within the defamation case, suggesting his statements could also be insufficiently critical to warrant perjury costs, mentioned Nick Bunch, a white-collar protection lawyer in Dallas.

“It is impossible that it turns right into a felony prosecution,” Bunch mentioned.

(Reporting by Daniel Wiessner in Albany, N.Y., and David Bario in Hopewell, N.M.Enhancing by Alexia Garamfalvi and Matthew Lewis)