Alex Jones' Child-Custody Battle

About

Alex Jones' Child Custody Battle refers to the news stories circulating around the Infowars-founder Alex Jones' ongoing child-custody trial against his ex-wife.

Background

On April 17th, 2017, Alex Jones, the founder of the conservative news website Infowars, began child custody hearings with ex-wife, Kelly. The trial attracted major media attention following a series of tweets from reporters covering the proceedings.

Developments

Performance Artist Defense

On April 17th, 2017, Jones' attorney Randall Wilhite argued that the court should not to consider Jones' public persona when evaluating his fitness as a parent of his three children with ex-wife Kelly. "He's playing a character," said Wihite. "He is a performance artist."^[1]

Jones' ex-wife, however, claimed that he was not a stable person, citing violent comments he's made toward various public figures. "He says he wants to break Alec Baldwin's neck," she said. "He wants J-Lo to get raped."

"I'm concerned that he is engaged in felonious behavior, threatening a member of Congress," she said, referring to comments about Democratic Representative Adam Schiff. "He broadcasts from home. The children are there, watching him broadcast."^[2]

Stephen Colbert spoofed Jones' "performance artist" defense on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert.

Bowl of Chili

On April 18th, Twitter user @JTiloveTX^[3][4] tweeted "Newman says that in deposition, Alex Jones said he couldn't recall basic facts about kids, because, 'I had a big bowl of chili for lunch.'" Within the first 12 hours the tweet received more than 1,500 retweets and 2,900 likes.

That day, the website Death and Taxes^[11] photoshopped a bowl of chili into the infamous picture of shirtless Alex Jones.

According to Buzzfeed,^[5] the next day in court, cross examination began with the following interaction:

“You haven’t had any chili this morning, have you, Mr. Jones?”

“Is that a serious question?” Jones shot back.

Various Revelations

On April 18th, Twitter user @JTiloveTX^[6] tweeted "Another classic Alex Jones riff caught on tape. Grousing that he never got Pulitzer – don't even want that – for telling truth about 9/11."

That day, Kelly's lawyers entered videos of Jones drunk and shirtless into court, arguing that this indicates that he is unfit to retain custody.^[8]

On April 20th, Buzzfeed's Charlie Warzel, who is covering the trial, reported that Jones admitted to smoke marijuana yearly “to monitor its strength, which is how law enforcement does it.” Jones also revealed that he believes that marijuana has become too strong, which he blames on political donor George Soros.^[5][13]

From his Twitter account, Warzel also tweeted "UPDATE: Jones took stand again. mentioned kids watching him. "they're very proud of the comedy memes that i appear in; online i'm a #1 meme." The tweet received more than 550 retweets and 1,200 likes.

That day, The Washington Post^[7] reported that "psychologist Alissa Sherry, the case manager for Jones's divorce from his wife, Kelly, testified that Jones has been diagnosed with narcissistic personality disorder."

Verdict

As Jones awaited for the jury's decision, on April 27th, he took to Twitter and began lashing out at critics, primarily late-night talk show host Stephen Colbert, who had been playing a Jones-like character, Tuck Buckford, since the trial began. Jones tweeted challenges for a debate with Colbert in character. The first tweet^[15] (show below, left) receive more than 300 retweets and 800 likes and the second^[16] (shown below, right) received more than 200 retweets and 760 likes.

Later that day, Jones lost primary custody of his three children with the jury ruling 10-2 in Kelly's favor after 10 hours of deliberation. The couple will share joint custody, but the children will live with their mother, while Alex Jones will receive visitation rights.

In her testimony, Kelly said that Jones was "an angry, volatile person who has racist, homophobic views…is enraged and out of control most of the time." Her lawyer, in his closing argument, said Jones was "like a cult leader and we see the horrific things cult leaders do to their followers--and the kids are his followers, doing what Daddy says to do.”^[14]

News Media Coverage

Several news media outlets have had continued coverage of the trial, including The Washington Post,^[7] The Daily Beast,^[8], Buzzfeed,^[5] Mother Jones,^[9] Uproxx,^[10] and more.

Search Interest

External References