WASHINGTON — An attorney for the plaintiffs suing conspiracy theorist Alex Jones on Monday turned over more than two years of text messages from Mr. Jones’ phone to the House committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol, including posts that show Mr. Jones was in contact with allies of former President Donald J. Trump.
But the files do not appear to include text messages from the time the committee is most interested in: the day of Jan. 6, 2021, and the weeks leading up to the attack, according to people familiar with the production of documents.
Although the phone data was retrieved in mid-2021, the most recent message is from mid-2020, according to Mark Bankston, who is representing Sandy Hook’s parents suing Mr Jones for defamation over lies he spilled over the 2012 school shooting. This period comes before Mr. Jones was involved in plans to gather a pro-Trump crowd in Washington to march on Capitol Hill as Mr. Trump fought to stay in office despite losing at the polls.
Text messages received by the committee on Monday – contained in a large folder of documents and other information from Mr. Jones’ phone – include some that indicate Mr. Jones was in contact with Trump allies, a person familiar with the matter said. the messages.
Mr. Bankston said he included text messages with political operative Roger J. Stone Jr. Mr. Bankston received the phone data from Mr. Jones’ lawyers, who had sent it to him by mistake.
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Of the nearly 250 recipients of the texts, most are employees of Mr Jones’ Infowars business and contractors and family members, some of whom are involved in his business.
SMS delivery was reported earlier by CNN. In court last week in Texas, Mr Bankston said he planned to hand over the texts to the committee, which had contacted him to obtain them, unless Judge Maya Guerra Gamble objects. Late Friday, the judge said she had no objection.
Mr Bankston said at the time that he had heard from “various federal agencies and law enforcement agencies” about the material.
The House committee has been pushing for the texts from Mr. Jones for months, saying they could be relevant to understanding his role in organizing the rally at the Ellipse near the White House leading up to the riot. In November, the panel filed subpoenas to compel testimony and communications from Mr. Jones related to Jan. 6, including his phone records.
The committee also issued a subpoena for communications from Timothy D. Enlow, who worked as Mr. Jones’ bodyguard on January 6.
Mr. Jones and Mr. Enlow have filed a lawsuit in an attempt to block the committee’s subpoenas. Mr Jones finally appeared before the panel in January and later said he invoked his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination nearly 100 times.
Although Mr Jones declined to share information with the committee, he said the committee had already obtained text messages from him.
According to the January 6 committee, Mr Jones helped arrange a donation from Julie Jenkins Fancelli, the heiress to the Publix Super Markets fortune, to provide what he described as “80%” of the funding for the rally of the Jan. 6 and said White House officials told him he needed to lead a march to the Capitol, where Mr. Trump would speak.
Mr. Jones and Mr. Stone were also part of the group of Trump allies who gathered in and around, or stayed at the Hotel Intercontinental Willardwhich some Trump advisers have treated as a war room for their efforts to get members of Congress to oppose Electoral College certification.