- An InfoWars producer told a Texas jury Wednesday that two grieving Sandy Hook parents are part of a scheme to 'make bank.'
- The dramatic courtroom attack came on day two of testimony in conspiracy broadcaster Alex Jones' defamation damages trial.
- "You're using their grief to make bank," InfoWars producer Daria Karpova told the parents' attorney.
A producer for InfoWars claimed to a Texas jury on Wednesday that two grieving Sandy Hook parents were not victimized by far-right conspiracy broadcaster Alex Jones — and that they are instead part of a legal scheme to "make bank" at his expense.
The testimony came on day two of Jones' defamation damages trial in Austin.
InfoWars producer Daria Karpova was responding to plaintiff lawyer Mark Bankston, who is representing Neil Heslin and Scarlett Lewis, the parents of Jesse Lewis, 6, one of 20 young children slain in the 2012 school massacre in Connecticut.
"Do you believe these two people are fake parents who inflicted emotional distress on America?" Bankston asked Karpova, gesturing to Heslin and Lewis in the Texas courtroom. Bankson was repeating language from past InfoWars broadcasts.
Karpova replied, "I don't believe that. I believe that their grief is being used."
In true InfoWars fashion, Karpova then tried to flip reality on its head. She claimed that that the mother and father were indeed being lied to — not by Jones, who repeatedly called the school shooting a "hoax," but by their own lawyer.
Heslin and Lewis are seeking $150 million in damages for Jones' repeated lies about the massacre — including that the massacre was staged by "crisis actors" as part of a government plot to take away people's guns.
"You're their enemy," not Jones, Karpova told the parents' lawyer from the witness stand.
"Because you're lying to them," she said of the parents. "And you're using their grief to make bank."
She added, "I think this reasonable jury here will see that the truth is on our side in this case."
Jones, the founder of InfoWars, has repeatedly and falsely told his audience for years that the Newtown, Connecticut, massacre that left 26 dead, including 20 first-graders, was a "giant hoax" staged by the government.
He has already been found liable for defamation by courts in Texas and Connecticut for his comments about the Sandy Hook shooting — the deadliest school shooting in US history.
The Travis County District Court jury will determine how much money Jones must pay Heslin and Lewis.
Karpova's testimony gave a chilling glimpse into the down-is-up, and up-is-down, alternate reality of the InfoWars newsroom — and the cult-like adherence of one producer.
"He never claimed something for sure," Karpova insisted, despite ample evidence before the jury of Jones doing just that, including baselessly telling his audience, "There are photos of kids that are still alive that they said died," and, "Undoubtably, it's a hoax."
"Every time he was trying to do honest investigative research to the best of his ability and that's his job," she claimed. "And he takes it very seriously."
Karpova testified that she believes the jury in the civil case "will see that Alex meant everything from his heart."