"He’s playing a character": Alex Jones lawyer says Infowars host is "a performance artist" and not really unstable

Alex Jones is in a custody dispute with his ex-wife, and this case may tell us if Infowars is a sham

By Matthew Rozsa

Staff Writer

Published April 17, 2017 1:14PM (EDT)

 (Reuters/Lucas Jackson)
(Reuters/Lucas Jackson)

Infowars host Alex Jones may have built his media empire off of unhinged comments — from propagating innumerable conspiracy theories to using homophobic slurs and threatening violence against California Rep. Adam Schiff — but now his lawyer in a custody battle wants us to believe that this is all an act.

"He’s playing a character. He is a performance artist," said Randall Wilhite, a lawyer in Jones' child custody dispute with his ex-wife Kelly Jones, according to a Austin American-Statesman report. In contrast, Kelly Jones has insisted that "he’s not a stable person. He says he wants to break Alec Baldwin’s neck. He wants J-Lo to get raped."

She added, "I’m concerned that he is engaged in felonious behavior, threatening a member of Congress. He broadcasts from home. The children are there, watching him broadcast."

According to District Judge Orlina Naranjo, this case is going to be about Jones' capacity to be a good parent to the three children he and Kelly Jones have, not the content of his controversial show Infowars.

"This case is not about Infowars, and I don’t want it to be about Infowars. I am in control of this court, not your clients," Naranjo declared.

Kelly Jones' attorneys have a number of Infowars clips they would like to play for the jury. These include a clip of Jones' discussing how he had allowed his son, then 12, to be mentored by members of the Infowars team (Wilhite will allow the jury to hear this one), Jones' infamous rant threatening violence against Schiff (Naranjo would not permit the playing of this one), and a clip of Jones smoking marijuana in California (allowed by Naranjo).


By Matthew Rozsa

Matthew Rozsa is a staff writer at Salon. He received a Master's Degree in History from Rutgers-Newark in 2012 and was awarded a science journalism fellowship from the Metcalf Institute in 2022.

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