Before launching into a tirade about “human animal chimeras” and “spider goats” on Friday, Infowars founder Alex Jones took aim at Greek yogurt.
Standing on the steps of the Travis County Courthouse in Austin, Jones threatened a countersuit against yogurt giant Chobani, which is suing him for defamation in a suit the Austin-based conspiracy theorist called “an absolute PR stunt.”
“We’re thinking of an aggressive corporate strategy to actually go after the New York Federal Reserve and the school lunch program that [Chobani CEO Hamdi Ulukuya]’s a part of,” Jones said, before adding that he’s looking forward to the discovery phase of the trial “on Chobani, Turkey and the Kurds and the funding of the operation.”
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He did not elaborate on the alleged role played by the Turkish republic or the Kurdish people in the yogurt company’s lawsuit.
Ulukuya is a member of the Upstate New York Regional Advisory Board at The Federal Reserve Bank of New York, and in 2015, The USDA selected Chobani as the main national supplier of Greek yogurt for the federal school lunch program.
The lawsuit filed against Jones in the Idaho District Court in Twin Falls on Monday accuses him and his program Infowars of fabricating stories about Ulukuya, including in a video earlier this month titled “MSM Covers For Globalist’s Refugee Import Program After Child Rape Case.” In the clip, Infowars attempted to link Chobani to the alleged rape of a young child by two refugee teenagers.
Chobani is seeking $10,000 in damages, alleging that Jones prompted a boycott of the company’s profits.
The company is widely viewed as a success story, and Ulukaya—a Turkish immigrant of Kurdish descent—has hired more than 300 refugees, drawing both praise from supporters and scorn from far-right websites like Infowars.
Jones’ comments on the lawsuit came during a rambling, bizarre press conference held outside the courthouse where late Thursday night he lost a custody battle over his three children. The jury in the nine-day trial ruled in favor of Jones’ ex-wife Kelly Jones, awarding them joint custody but giving Kelly the right to determine where the children live.
Though the press conference was called to discuss the verdict, little about Jones sticks to a script.
Besides “spider goats” and “human animal chimeras,” Jones bellowed about “rhesus monkeys that you can buy in the Hong Kong market and glow in the dark and are part jellyfish,” and made a passing reference to fluoride poisoning. He also took aim at his favorite targets—George Soros and the “fake news fiction writers” of the mainstream media before pointing out a number of matters central to his custody case that were misreported by some outlets (he didn’t lose custody of his kids, and how much custody he will receive is yet to be determined by presiding judge Orlinda Naranjo).
Jones morphed into his shtick of playing both the victim and victorious truth-teller whose power is only growing. He claimed that during the two weeks of the custody trial Infowars had more viewers and listeners than at any time in their history and that “your mainstream media deception has only intensified the power of Infowars as people across the world see that I’m under attack with attempts to take my children from me.”
He then claimed he was a “piñata and low hanging fruit” for people who hate President Trump, but that “this is what happens when you’re changing the world and the old system is upset about it.”
The fever dream Alex Jones rant was followed by a sharp 180-degree turn, as Jones called over his attorney Randall Wilhite, a towering courtroom heavy-hitter who is something of an institution in Texas family law. Wilhite spoke in calm, smooth legalese about the hearing expected in late May in which Naranjo will rule how much apportionment of custody each parent receives.
Wilhite’s cameo was fleeting, and as Jones left the press conference, he was questioned about a number of his more controversial assertions and was happy to oblige. Jones said he was joking when he recently alleged that former President Barack Obama’s children aren’t his own and that when he called the Sandy Hook massacre a hoax, he was just “playing devil’s advocate in a debate, saying we should investigate everything because the government lies so much.”
He added a caveat though, saying “they were using blue screens out there [at Sandy Hook].”
