America’s most infamous conspiracy theorist has been sued for spreading completely false information, again.On Feb. 14, Alex Jones’ website InfoWars falsely proclaimed that Marcel Fontaine, a 24-year-old from Boston who says he’s never even been to Florida, was a suspect in the mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School. Infowars also posted a picture of Fontaine in what they called “communist garb,” an apparent reference to Fontaine’s graphic T-shirt, which featured a drunk Karl Marx wearing a lampshade on his head.Fontaine’s suit, filed in Texas Monday against Jones and InfoWars, asks for more than $1 million in damages for “irreparable harm” to his reputation. InfoWars reporter Kit Daniels, the post’s author, and Free Speech Systems LLC, InfoWars’ parent company, are also named in the lawsuit.Fontaine’s lawyer told The Huffington Post that they plan to take the case to a jury, rather than coming to a settlement behind closed doors. VICE News has reached out for comment, but Alex Jones and InfoWars have yet to publicly respond to the lawsuit.The lawsuit cites a pattern of willful dissemination of false information by InfoWars that was established long before the Parkland shooting.“Mr. Jones’ recklessly opportunistic career is littered with the fallout from his willful pattern of defamation,” reads the lawsuit. “Mr. Jones garnered significant attention for his slander against the victims of the Sandy Hook massacre, claiming he has seen ‘evidence’ that could lead people to believe ‘that nobody died there.’ Jones has also claimed that the 9/11 attacks were ‘an inside job’ involving the U.S. government.”Alex Jones built the InfoWars brand on conspiracy theories that have no basis in reality, including claims that the government created homosexuality and that Barack Obama was the “global leader” of al-Qaeda.One claim that does appear to be true, however, is Jones' personal relationship with President Donald Trump. Jones’ own words even sometimes seem to directly influence the president’s rhetoric. On Oct. 11, 2012, for example, Jones said that Barack Obama wore a ring with an Arabic inscription on it. Hours later, Trump echoed the same dubious claim.Cover image: UNITED STATES - JULY 19: Radio host Alex Jones is escorted from a rally in the Public Square after inciting a confrontation near the Republican National Convention at the Quicken Loans Arena in Cleveland, Ohio, July 19, 2016. (Photo By Tom Williams/CQ Roll Call)
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