WESTPORT – In October, nearly a decade after the Sandy Hook school shooting, eight victims’ families and one FBI agent. earned $965 million in a slander case against Alex Jonesone of the worst awards in history – and a lawyer from Westport played a key role in it.
On January 19, the Y’s Men of Westport hosted a panel discussion with Attorney Josh Koskoff, a long-time Westporter and Staples graduate, who represented the families in this lawsuit, as well as a case against Remingtonthe manufacturer of the gun used in the gun.
Koskoff began with a quote from the Bible, where God cast Satan out of heaven: “The abundance of your possessions has filled you with violence, you have sinned; God; I will also destroy you, the veiled cherub, among the stones of fire.”
“And the products are what Alex Emerick Jones is,” Koskoff said.
For years, Jones used social media, his own website, InfoWars, and his radio show, “The Alex Jones Show,” to spread misinformation about the shooting that killed 20 students and six teachers. Some of the situations include calling the shooting a “hoax” that was carried out by “troublemakers.”
He listed examples of products that Jones promoted, including supplements and iodine, that helped fund his programs.
“Jones takes a cue from other figures, especially religious leaders, terrorists and autocrats,” Koskoff said. “His main message is that the whole world is full of businessmen and advertisers who are coming to enslave you, take away your guns and destroy you.”
Koskoff said they have to convince the jury that there are people who believe Jones’ words.
“The truth is, you have to take a leap of faith to exist,” he said. “There are people who believe everything he says is true and everything other people in the media say is wrong.”
According to Koskoff, Jones used the internet, especially social media, to push his “argument,” which he described as an “us versus them” message in politics, and then fueled it. the people who buy his products.
“He’s a household name now and Sandy Hook really put him on the map … and made him rich,” Koskoff said.
He added that Jones has several websites that take viewers “into the InfoWars store, after they have been instilled with fear and loathing.”
On July 20, 2012, about five months before the Sandy Hook shooting, another mass shooting occurred at a movie theater in Colorado.
Jones went on his show about the shooting, saying there was a “100 percent chance” the mass shooting “was a false flag, mind control thing.”
Koskoff said Jones would “jump on” incidents that would eventually sell his products.
“He has already planted a seed here in his audience that the Aurora shooting was organized, well, by the government,” he said.
By the day of the Sandy Hook shooting, Koskoff said Jones had accumulated 119 million sessions on his website.
“And what the families of those missing children didn’t know was that another kind of attack would begin – not against their children, but against them,” he said.
According to Koskoff, this “attack” began that day and will last for the rest of their lives.
Koskoff said that on Dec. 14, 2012, the day of the crash, Jones repeated on his show what he had been saying for months, “They’re going to come back. our guns. Look for the big guns.”
Koskoff called it “communication at its best,” with its repetition and rhythm of “them” throughout the piece. He said the term “they” is commonly used today on the internet, even in Westport.
“It’s a very addictive way to communicate,” he said.
Koskoff showed a video of one of the victim’s fathers, Robbie Parker, speaking at a press conference the day after the shooting, which Jones later used to publicize it. his comments.
In the video, Parker is seen smiling and laughing before the interview. Jones said that since he was an artist, he had “traditional art education.”
Koskoff said Parker’s photo was because his father said, “Go get Auggie,” before going on camera. “Auggie” is the name of the Parker mascot who dressed up like he did during college.
Parker would later receive $120 million for defamation, the highest of any victim.
In the case, Koskoff and other lawyers used analysis to show that Jones benefited from the destruction of Sandy Hook families.
According to Koskoff, InfoWars members denied using Google Analytics to track their performance, but that turned out to be untrue. From 2012 to 2013, InfoWars’ audience rose from 119 million to 179 million.
One piece of evidence in the case is an article from InfoWars titled “FBI says no one was killed at Sandy Hook.” Visits to the website increased after it was published on September 24, 2014, about double. As of the date of publication, Jones has earned $48,230 in profits from his website. One day later, he earned $232,825, Koskoff said.
To conclude the speech, Koskoff shared his thoughts on Westport.
He shared information from a local website where people were criticizing the people involved in a decision not to install a photo at the Westport Library.
Koskoff says, “When you put something online, you just ask yourself a simple question: ‘Am I saying this to this person’s face?'”
kayla.mutchler@hearstmediact.com