Attorneys defending Infowars host Alex Jones in 海角换妻 and Texas faced questions Thursday about their roles in the improper sharing of records marked 鈥渉ighly confidential.鈥�
A 海角换妻 judge is holding disciplinary hearings in a Waterbury, 海角换妻, courtroom to get to the bottom of how a file wrongly ended up in the possession of the law firm of Jones鈥� Texas attorney Andino Reynal.
The file is believed to contain confidential psychiatric records and depositions from a first responder and families of victims of the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting.
On Thursday, the attorney who鈥檚 accused of starting it all took the 5th Amendment in court.
鈥淚鈥檓 asserting my rights as previously stated,鈥� Jones鈥� attorney in 海角换妻, Norm Pattis, said repeatedly when asked questions about sharing information that opposing counsel said was labeled 鈥渉ighly confidential.鈥�
Judge Barbara Bellis called Pattis鈥� taking the 5th in a disciplinary hearing 鈥渦nusual to say the least.鈥� She asked his attorneys and opposing counsel in the proceedings to brief her about Pattis鈥� responses Thursday.
Following the trail of the file: 鈥楥T Sandy Hook offload鈥�
Jones has been sued in 海角换妻 and Texas for defamation after repeatedly claiming the December 2012 shooting was a hoax.
During a recently completed trial in Texas, Jones was ordered to pay $45 million in punitive damages to the parents of Sandy Hook school shooting victim Jesse Lewis 鈥� although due to Texas laws regarding punitive damages, parents Neil Heslin and Scarlett Lewis may see only a fraction of that.
But the trial also highlighted something else: confidential records sent in error.
During the Texas trial, the plaintiffs鈥� attorney, Mark Bankston, revealed that a law firm representing Jones mistakenly shared two years鈥� worth of Jones鈥� text messages and the confidential psychiatric records of families suing Jones in 海角换妻.
Bankston said Jones鈥� Texas attorneys must have gotten those records 鈥� which he said he destroyed 鈥� from Pattis.
The trail of the files, which were stored in a folder called 鈥淐T Sandy Hook offload,鈥� goes from Pattis to a Texas bankruptcy attorney and then to Andino Reynal, whom Jones hired as a defense attorney in the Texas lawsuit.
Reynal says that back in June, the bankruptcy attorney handed him a white external hard drive. But the bankruptcy attorney said he did that at Reynal鈥檚 request. Reynal said Thursday he doesn鈥檛 remember doing that.
鈥淚鈥檓 not saying it couldn鈥檛 have happened 鈥� it could have 鈥� I鈥檓 saying I don鈥檛 remember that conversation,鈥� Reynal said.
He said he didn鈥檛 look at what was in the files until 鈥渆verything blew up.鈥�
鈥淚t was incredibly embarrassing,鈥� Reynal said about learning of the improper record sharing.
Attorneys for Jones in 海角换妻 requested medical records from the plaintiffs last year. Pattis hasn鈥檛 said whether those were the files sent on the hard drive to the bankruptcy lawyer in Texas.
He鈥檚 denied any misconduct.
No ruling was made Thursday. Bellis asked attorneys to submit briefs in response to certain answers she heard during the hearings. She鈥檚 also requested closing arguments. Those are scheduled for Sept. 1.
The 海角换妻 lawsuit is in the middle of jury selection. Six of six jurors and one of four alternates have been accepted by both sides. Evidence in the trial will be presented beginning Sept. 13.
The story has been updated.
