InfoWars host Alex Jones has sued the Jan. 6 Committee and a number of associated politicians. The lawsuit is an attempt to push back against a since-postponed deposition of Jones that the lawsuit indicates was originally scheduled for Dec. 18.
“Jones has offered to submit documents and answer written questions with written responses,” the lawsuit says. “The Select Committee has refused to accept that offer and insists that he appear in person for a deposition in Washington, D.C. on January 10, 2022. Jones has notified the Select Committee that he intends to plead his right to remain silent under the Fifth Amendment.”
In the case, filed Wednesday in U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, Jones accuses the defendants of launching “coercive secret proceedings specifically designed to satiate a political witch hunt.” He also says the government is trying to “bypass constitutional safeguards” and “hijack the role of the Executive Branch while threatening criminal prosecution against anyone who dares to assert his rights and liberties against its demands.”
Elsewhere, the filing alleges that “House Democrats have repeatedly cast themselves as victims in a tragedy.” It asserts that the Committee’s purpose is merely “revenge on Donald Trump and his political allies” and claims Democrats hatched the revenge plot “while still huddled in a Congressional safe room” on Jan. 6.
“[T]hey clearly contemplated criminal charges against Donald Trump and his allies regardless of whether they had a basis for them,” the lawsuit alleges as to the Democrats.
In the lawsuit, Jones describes himself as a “controversial American journalist, political commentator, activist, and businessman.” He describes the Jan. 6 Committee as “a congressional committee ostensibly organized and operating under cloak of the Rules of the United States House of Representatives.” He calls Rep. Elizabeth L. Cheney, one of the named defendants, “purportedly a Republican” — an assertion upon which the lawsuit elucidates elsewhere:
A question exists as to whether Defendant Cheney is still a member of the Republican Party. The Wyoming Republican Party has expelled her as a member, and Chairman Thompson’s act of appointing her to the position of Vice Chair confirms under House Rules that she is a member of the Democrat party because House Rule XI(2)(d) states that vice chairs are to be members of the majority party.
The lawsuit further alleges that “questions” of voter fraud following the November 2020 presidential election were “all fairly prompted by the first mass mail-in voting presidential election.” It complains that “Speaker [Nancy] Pelosi has only appointed 9 members to the Select Committee” despite a mandate to appoint 13 members. The lawsuit explains:
Speaker Pelosi’s actions both flout the requirements of H. Res. 503 and longstanding House practices. House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy recommended five Republican members to serve on the Select Committee as H. Res. 503: Rep. Jim Banks of Indiana, Rep. Rodney Davis of Illinois, Rep. Jim Jordan of Ohio, Rep. Kelly Armstrong of North Dakota, and Rep. Troy Nehls of Texas. He designated Rep. Banks as the Republican’s Party’s ranking minority member.
Speaker Pelosi did not appoint any of Leader McCarthy’s recommendations. In a public statement on July 21, 2021, she stated that objections had been raised about Representatives Banks and Jordan and the fact that their presence on the Select Committee may impact the “integrity of the investigation.” Instead, she indicated a willingness to appoint Representatives Davis, Armstrong, and Nehls, and she asked him to recommend two additional members. She characterized her decision as “unprecedented.”
The lawsuit goes on to complain that the rules require the Committee to give three days of notice to the ranking minority member before taking a deposition. Since there is no ranking minority member, the lawsuit argues that any deposition sought and taken by the Committee violates the rules.
It further alleges that the Jan. 6 Committee was primarily empaneled to pursue criminal prosecutions — an alleged encroachment on the constitutional powers of the executive branch.
The Select Committee has no intention of preparing reports for the purposes of future legislation, nor does it have any authority to propose and report legislation to the full House of Representatives.
The Select Committee and its members consider themselves and most of the other members of Congress victims of domestic terrorism. They also consider a small minority of Congressmen and Senators as well as Donald Trump to be domestic terrorists.
The Select Committee and its members purport to be investigating “a domestic terrorist attack,” and Select Committee members have littered the public record with comments indicating that they are primarily working to expose matters for the mere sake of exposing them and to secure individual determinations of guilt or innocence – an activity squarely within the providence of the Article II executive and the Article III judiciary.
The lawsuit says Jones plans to invoke his “First, Fourth, and Fifth Amendment rights” to “decline to produce” the full array of documents requested by the Committee. The filing asserts that Jones “engaged in constitutionally protected political and journalistic activity under the First Amendment, that the Fourth Amendment guarantees him a right of privacy in his papers, and that he is entitled to due process and the right to remain silent under the Fifth Amendment.”
The lawsuit then complains that the Committee “has requested virtually every phone call and text that Jones made for the requested time period and data associated with those phones calls and texts” via a subpoena to AT&T.
Jones “seriously considered” cooperating with the Committee, the lawsuit claims, but then suggests that Jones backed down because Committee “members have made it abundantly clear that they are only interested in prosecuting political adversaries.”
The lawsuit alleges that the Committee’s attempt to obtain documents and a deposition from Jones violates Article I, §§ 1, 8 of the U.S. Constitution, the Separation of Powers, the First Amendment, the Fourth Amendment, the Fifth Amendment, the Stored Communications Act 18 U.S.C. § 2702 (with respect to the AT&T records). The suit seeks a series of declarative judgments that would generally stymie the Committee’s work, including a judgment that the Committee “is not a lawfully constituted committee and that its actions to date have been wholly without legal authority.” It also seeks “[a]n injunction prohibiting Defendants from imposing sanctions,” an injunction quashing a subpoena against Jones, and in junction prohibiting sanctions against AT&T. Finally, Jones seeks costs and attorneys’ fees.
Jones is represented by New Haven, Conn. attorneys Norm Pattis and Cameron Atkinson.
Read the 29-page lawsuit and its cache of associated exhibits here.