Alex Jones: Sandy Hook Trial About 'The Annihilation Of Free Speech'

WATERBURY, CT — Alex Jones spoke with reporters Wednesday afternoon, once again apologizing for spreading the lie that the 2012 Sandy Hook Elementary School shootings were a hoax.

"I did say things that were hurtful or not true," Jones said. "But I did not do it on purpose."

Jones, host of internet show InfoWars, made his statements outside Waterbury Superior Court. Inside, the second of three trials to determine how much money he must pay families of the victims is in its second week. He is expected to give testimony for the first time in this trial on Thursday.

Jones had previously called the shooting a hoax, but recanted years later. Twenty students and six educators at the elementary school were killed by a lone gunman in December 2012.

"They believe that I'm like this Lex Luthor mastermind that controls everything. I don't," Jones said. "I basically don't even control my life. And so I'm simply here to say, 'I'm not the Sandy Hook man.'"

In November, Jones was found guilty by default of defamation because he and InfoWars' parent company, Free Speech Systems, failed to turn over court-requested materials, including financial records. Jones has since complained that he was found "guilty" without a trial.

On Wednesday, Jones disputed that InfoWars was in default, insisting the company had provided the courts with all the evidence requested.

"And when they saw that there was not anything in their discovery, they went 'okay, you're secretly hiding stuff, we find you guilty.'"

Jones has shifted his tact in public statements made outside the courthouse this week. On Tuesday, he said Judge Barbara Bellis "has now ordered me to not say I'm innocent and ordered me to say that I have not profited from Sandy Hook ... I will not perjure myself under the orders of a judge."

Sandy Hook parents Neil Heslin and Scarlett Lewis were awarded a total of just under $50 million in both compensatory and punitive damages during Jones' first defamation compensation trial in Texas in August.

The plaintiffs in the case claim they were threatened and harassed by InfoWars listeners who denied the shootings occurred. They said Jones profited from his lies as sales of dietary supplements, clothing, food and other items InfoWars promotes surged when listenership spiked amidst the conspiracy claims.

On Wednesday, in front of the courthouse in Waterbury, Jones disputed that premise of the trials.

"This isn't about restitution to families, this is about annihilation of free speech," Jones said.

"Last week, these lawyers who already got $73 million from Remington for many of these same clients ... said, 'we want to stop and shut down Alex Jones.'"

Families of victims of the 2012 Sandy Hook shooting reportedly reached a $73 million settlement against Remington Arms, the gun manufacturer that made the Bushmaster AR-15, which the shooter used in the mass killing at the elementary school.

"They're using this case to go after the First Amendment," Jones said. "Sandy Hook has been used to go after the Second Amendment and the right to bear arms. Now it's being used to go after the First Amendment. And that's terrible."

Jones said he believed that "the families are a victim of the process of these lawyers, manipulating and controlling them..."

The Associated Press contributed to this story.