Q&A: The Alex Jones Infowars defamation trial explained

Conspiracy theorist Alex Jones has been on trial for calling the Sandy Hook Elementary School attack a hoax. Here Michael Tarm and Jim Vertuno of the Associated Press look at how the case relates to the US First Amendment, which protects freedom of speech

Infowars host and conspiracy theorist Alex Jones can’t argue that he’s not liable for damages on the grounds that his speech was protected. Photo: AP/J. Scott Applewhite

Conspiracy theorist Alex Jones arrived at a Texas courthouse for his defamation trial for calling the Sandy Hook Elementary School attack a hoax with the words “Save the 1st” scrawled on tape covering his mouth.

Although Jones portrays the lawsuit against him as an assault on the First Amendment, the parents who sued him say his statements were so malicious and obviously false that they fell well outside the bounds of speech protected by the constitutional clause.