Conspiracy Theorist Alex Jones Arrested For DWI In Texas

Conspiracy theorist Alex Jones was arrested early Tuesday in Austin, Texas, for driving while intoxicated, officials said. Jones, who hosts his own radio show, "InfoWars," was booked on a DWI charge just after midnight, the Travis County Sheriff's Office told CBS News.

The charge is a class B misdemeanor. Jones' bond was set at $3,000 and he was released on bond just after 4 a.m., the sheriff's office confirmed.

This is not the first time the host has gotten in trouble with the law. In 2019, a Connecticut judge sanctioned Jones after he threatened one of the attorneys representing families of Sandy Hook shooting victims in their defamation lawsuit against him.

Jones lashed out after the attorneys claimed the InfoWars founder sent them child porn. Jones is being sued by families for spreading the false conspiracy theory that the shooting that left 26 dead is a hoax.

In December, a Texas judge ordered Jones to pay over $100,000 in court fines in the Sandy Hook suit.  

Earlier this year, Facebook banned Jones for spreading numerous conspiracies, including the false Sandy Hook hoax story.

In 2018, PayPal banned Jones and InfoWars from processing payments, saying an extensive review of their controversial content "found instances that promoted hate and discriminatory intolerance against certain communities and religions that run counter to our core value of inclusion."

That same year, the InfoWars app was removed from the Apple App Store – just one day after Jones and InfoWars were permanently banned from Twitter. Spotify also removed specific episodes of the InfoWars podcast, after the streaming service determined them to include hate speech. Dozens of episodes of Jones' podcasts remained available on the site.

First published on March 10, 2020 / 4:23 PM

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