Revelations that conspiracy theorist Alex Jones may have lied on the stand in a defamation lawsuit by the parents of a child killed in the 2012 Sandy Hook mass shooting made for a dramatic moment in a high-profile trial, but it would be unusual to prosecutors will pursue beyond the perjury charges, attorneys said. A jury in Austin, Texas, on Thursday said Mr. Jones must pay $4.1 million to plaintiffs for falsely claiming the shooting was a hoax. The jury began deliberating Friday on how much Mr. Jones should pay in punitive damages. During the final day of testimony on Wednesday, a lawyer for the parents made the unusual revelation that Mr. Jones’ lawyer had mistakenly sent him a file containing text messages from Jones’ phone about the Sandy Hook shooting. The revelation was significant because Jones claimed he had searched his phone for such messages and never found any. The parents’ barrister, Mark Bankston, when questioning Mr Jones about the texts, asked him if he knew the definition of perjury. Mr Jones replied that the suggestion he had lied was “ridiculous”. Travis County Judge Maya Guerra Gamble on Thursday denied Mr. Jones’ motion for a mistrial based on disclosure. Perjury charges are rare in Texas, even when parties to civil lawsuits are caught giving false testimony, according to criminal defense attorneys who practice in the state. But prosecutors in liberal Travis County, home to Mr. Jones’ radio show and the right-wing Web show InfoWars, could be more inclined to charge Jones because of his incendiary conservative views and his mockery of the legal system against during the defamation case, Lisa said. Shapiro Strauss, an attorney in Houston. “The political motivation may be there to make an example of him,” Ms. Strauss said. Lawyers for Mr. Jones and the family who sued him, as well as the Travis County District Attorney’s office, did not respond to requests for comment. If Mr. Jones were charged, it would likely be for aggravated perjury, a felony punishable by two 10-year prison terms, because his comments were made in court testimony, lawyers said. Swearing outside of court, such as in a deposition or police statement, is a misdemeanor in Texas. Prosecutors will have to take a close look at Mr. Jones’ testimony about the text messages before deciding whether to file perjury charges, according to Benson Varghese, a defense lawyer based in Fort Worth, Texas. Mr. Varghese said that if Jones only claimed he couldn’t find the messages, prosecutors would have a hard time proving he deliberately lied about their existence. “Just because the text messages are there doesn’t necessarily mean he found them” and then lied about it, Mr. Varghese said. Justice Gamble, the judge presiding over the defamation case, may refer the matter to local prosecutors, which would likely increase the chances of Mr. Jones being charged, lawyers said. Justice Gamble has repeatedly admonished Mr. Jones and his legal team during four years of litigation in the case and has suggested that Mr. Jones lied under oath about complying with discovery requests and his company’s financials. Earlier this week, the judge warned Mr Jones not to lie on the stand, telling him: “Just because you claim to believe something is true doesn’t make it true.” But Justice Gamble refrained from sanctioning Jones in the defamation case, suggesting his statements may be insufficiently serious to warrant perjury charges, said Nick Bunch, a white-collar defense attorney in Dallas. “It is highly unlikely that it will turn into a criminal prosecution,” Mr Bunch said. The Morning Update and Afternoon Update newsletters are written by Globe editors, giving you a concise summary of the day’s most important headlines. Sign up today.
