Alex Jones and Donald Trump: A Fateful Alliance Draws Scrutiny

For Jan. 6, Mr. Jones helped safe no less than $650,000 from a Publix grocery-store heiress, Julie Fancelli, an Infowars fan, to underwrite Mr. Trump’s rally on the Ellipse the morning of the assault, $200,000 of which was deposited into one in all Mr. Jones’s enterprise accounts, the Home committee investigating the Jan. 6 assault mentioned. The evening earlier than the riot Mr. Jones was on the Willard Intercontinental Lodge in Washington, the place Trump aides and allies had arrange an outpost. He has longtime ties to no less than a half-dozen individuals arrested after the riot, together with the founding father of the far-right Oath Keepers militia, Stewart Rhodes, nonetheless an everyday visitor on Infowars, and Joseph Biggs, a former Infowars worker and Proud Boys chief.

The Home committee has subpoenaed Mr. Jones, and included a three-page record looking for his associated communications and monetary information. The panel can also be looking for Mr. Jones’s communications with Mr. Trump, his household and anybody from the White Home or Congress within the days earlier than the riot. Questioned by the panel this 12 months, Mr. Jones invoked his Fifth Modification proper in opposition to self-incrimination greater than 100 occasions, and is making an attempt to dam the committee’s demand for information in courtroom.

Regardless of the final result of the Jan. 6 investigation, Mr. Jones’s journey from Sandy Hook to the assault on the Capitol is a mirrored image of how conspiracy theories in the USA have metastasized and corroded public discourse within the digital age. A defender of President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia and a former common on RT, the Kremlin-funded worldwide tv outlet, Mr. Jones espoused such excessive views of American democratic society — he has forged airport safety screenings as a plot to usurp People’ freedoms — that in 2011 RT stopped inviting him on air.

However after Mr. Trump appeared stay in an interview on Infowars’ web site in December 2015, Mr. Jones traveled from the fringes to turn into a part of a newly radicalized Republican Social gathering. Infowars grossed greater than $50 million yearly throughout the Trump presidency by promoting weight loss program dietary supplements, physique armor and different merchandise on its web site, information filed in courtroom point out. Throughout and after the Jan. 6 riot, Infowars promoted its merchandise alongside graphic movies, together with footage by an Infowars cameraman of the capturing demise of a pro-Trump rioter, Ashli Babbitt, by a Capitol Police officer throughout the assault.

Mr. Jones didn’t reply to messages looking for remark. His lawyer, Norm Pattis, mentioned his shopper had achieved nothing improper on Jan. 6.