Lawyers for Sandy Hook victims call out Cruz for defending Alex Jones’ free speech rights

Lawyers representing the families of victims of the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting are calling out Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) for his defense of Infowars founder Alex Jones’s free speech rights. 

“Over the past month, you have repeatedly defended Jones against Facebook’s decision to ban his account,” Mark Bankston and William Ogden of the Houston law firm Farrar & Ball wrote in an op-ed for the Austin American-Statesman   on Thursday.

{mosads} “When it comes to Jones, we can only presume that you are speaking from ignorance and that you do not know the nature of the conduct you are now zealously defending, nor the harm that has befallen my clients and many others,” the lawyers wrote.

“This is not a question of free speech. This is not a question of disagreeing with a person’s political views. This is a question of just how much damage we’re prepared to let a madman inflict on the lives of innocent victims through malicious lies and willful harassment.”

The comments from Bankston and Ogden come after multiple tech companies, including Facebook and YouTube, banned Infowars from its platform for violating their terms of service. 

Jones has repeatedly produced false conspiracy theories on a variety topics. He’s also argued that the Sandy Hook shooting, which occurred on Dec. 14, 2012, was a hoax and that the families of victims were crisis actors. 

It’s an assertion that has led to multiple lawsuits from families of victims of the shooting. The families have accused Jones of slander and have also said that Jones’s arguments led to them being harassed and threatened.  

Cruz, however, called out tech companies for their decision to remove Jones from their platforms.

“Who the hell made Facebook the arbiter of political speech?” Cruz tweeted in late July. “Free speech includes views you disagree with.”

Bankston and Ogden, who are working on a case against Jones in Texas, implored Cruz to read their clients’ suit filings before commenting on them. They added that they weren’t sure what it would take for Cruz to stop defending Jones. 

“Does a Sandy Hook parent need to die before Facebook is allowed to deny this man a platform for his mayhem on their private service?” The two asked.

“Our clients fully recognize that if Jones wants to tell lies about them in the public square, there is very little anyone can do outside a courtroom to stop him. But we ask you not to defend the idea that private companies like Facebook must empower Jones to harass and endanger the lives of innocent victims.”