- The January 6 committee released the transcript of its interview with Alex Jones on Wednesday.
- The far-right radio host pleaded the fifth to almost all of the questions asked by investigators.
- He also misspelled his own middle name, stating he was "so stressed out, I can't even spell it."
The House January 6 committee released a transcript of its January 2022 interview with far-right conspiracist theorist and InfoWars host Alex Jones on Wednesday, confirming that he had extensively asserted his Fifth Amendment rights under questioning from investigators.
Jones attended the "Stop The Steal" rally in Washington, DC, that preceded the assault on the US Capitol on January 6, 2021, and was reportedly a key organizer of the rally. He was originally served a subpoena by the committee in November 2021.
The InfoWars host appeared to be under stress during the exchange with investigators, misspelling his own middle name when asked to provide it at the very beginning of the examination.
"Could you please spell your middle name for the record?" an investigator, whose identity was redacted in the report, asked Jones.
"You guys know what my name is. It's on the record," Jones shot back.
"I'm just asking for the court reporter," the investigator replied.
"E - m — I'm so stressed out, I can't even spell it for you," he replied, at which point his lawyer, Norm Pattis, stepped in to spell his name.
"E - m - i - r - c," Jones is recorded as replying, apparently misspelling "Emerick," his middle name.
Jones had previously said that he had pleaded the Fifth nearly 100 times during his testimony, and the rest of the 40-page transcript confirms that he used the right — which allows defendants to decline to answer questions in order to avoid self-incrimination — extensively.
"On advice of my counsel, I'm asserting my Fifth Amendment right to remain silent," Jones replied to questions that ranged from whether he believed he was exposed to criminal prosecution, his connections to "Stop The Steal" organizer Ali Alexander and his attendance of large-scale protests in Washington following the 2020 presidential election,
At one point, he accused, without evidence, Democratic Rep. Adam Schiff of California, a member of the committee, of forging documents.
"Because Adam Schiff forges documents," said Jones when asked to confirm that he would not address questions about the events of January 5 and 6, 2021. He added: "I don't trust Congressman Schiff. He'll forge stuff."
He then continued, eventually prompting the intervention of his lawyer.
"I want to tell you guys everything, but I don't trust Congressman Schiff," he said, before turning to his lawyer: "I don't even know how to control this stuff, Norm. It's a different system than I have."
Jones later said on his radio show after the examination that investigators "were polite, but they were dogged."
Separately, Jones was recently ordered to pay nearly $1 billion in compensatory damages to the families who lost loved ones in the 2012 Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting after falsely claiming for years that the shooting was a "false flag" to allow the government to restrict gun ownership.
from Business Insider https://ift.tt/UFoVwzq
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