not as serious as the threats today, but the basic story, because it's a piece of our history and if we lose it and forget it, democracy will pay the price. the following is a cnn special report. a nation torn apart by lies. >> i say it's treason! >> one man has been preaching disinformation for decades, alex jones. >> we will never give up. we will never surrender. >> spreading extremism. >> joe biden, burn in hell! >> convincing millions of followers. >> alex, alex, alex! >> damaging lies. >> alex jones lied about sandy hook, the tragedy that i lost my son in. >> tonight, the disturbing

history from the fringe. >> he could turn his tongue black as though he were possessed. >> to making a fortune. >> the truth doesn't really matter. it's like a far right qvc. >> threatening american democracy. >> 1776! 1776! >> through exclusive footage -- >> i'm donald trump now. >> interviews with former employees. >> we made up the stories. we lied. >> alex will not stop. >> his victims -- >> every day i get a death threat. >> and those trying to stop him. >> how would you describe him to people who don't know him? how do you explain to folks who have never seen something this crazy? >> if they want to fight, they better believe they got one! >> megaphone for conspiracy. alex jones. this is alex jones info wars studio in austin, texas. >> you guys ready? >> it looks like a professional

news set, but the similarities end there. >> i'll drink your blood. you understand that? i will hang your ass up and cut you into cutlets. >> the globalists are agents of corruption. >> the official story of sandy hook has more holes in it than swiss cheese. >> a founding father of disinformation, jones is infamous for his most vile lie that the sandy hook shooting was a hoax. >> the whole thing was fake. >> jones and his followers launched a years' long vendetta against the families of the children who were murdered. >> he was fueling this conspiracy theory that the children didn't die. they were actors. real people were murdered. along with my son. >> it made it impossible for these parents to have closure. all of my clients have received numerous death threats. they've all been in a situation where their lives have been in genuine peril. >> why pay attention to jones? >> there are so many people who

said with jones if you just ignore it, it will go away. in order to grow, he didn't need any of the mainstream culture's attention. as long as he had that bubble that was allowed to grow and fester uncorinterrupt ed, that' what made him a force. >> that bubble started 30 years ago with a show that would become info wars. >> the government said they were going to put poisons and toxins and bioweapons in the vaccines. >> jones was spreading dangerous conspiracy theories that now sound eerily recycled. >> the u.n., the world health organization, the cdc have all been caught adding sterilizers, cancer viruses, poisons. >> info wars has grown from a fledgling radio show into a multimedia empire that has reached 10s of millions. there is a formula. the formula is you find a story that people are upset about and you play it up as much as you

possibly can, as extreme as possible in the most dramatic way. >> cnn spoke in depth to those who have followed jones' rise and those who have worked with him. filmmaker caylen robertson appeared repeatedly on jones show, made a documentary with him before realizing it was all a sham. >> i felt like i was doing the right thing. like i felt like i was on the side of truth. >> robert jacobson worked at info wars for 13 years, then finally had enough. >> he will just lie, stray-up lie like nothing's going on. like it's real. and the issue with that is a lot of people believe him. >> josh owens spent four years editing and producing at info wars. >> people always ask me, does jones believe the things he says? i don't know that it matters he believes the things he says, because the people who listen to him believe the things he says. >> the elites are killing little kids, drinking blood, torturing people. >> every one of his thought

patterns that either the 3 percenters, the you anongroup, they all originate from alex. >> hillary clinton is a goddamn demon. it's not taking it in vain. she is a demon damned to hell. excuse me. >> his whole shtick is that there is a war for your mind. >> new world order is run by absolutely ruthless individuals hell bent on dehumanizing the entire human community. >> the idea that the shadowy figures in the new world order are really controlling things. >> the fruits of the new world order are hell and death and destruction. >> once written off as unhinged, fringe, and crazy -- >> alex jones! alex jones! >> alex jones has become an alt-right influencer, and his theorys have become mainstream, delivered to an even wider audience, often with a violent message. >> i want to break your jaw off and grab it with my hands and rip the mandible off your head.

i want to bash your brains out. i want to bring you low. >> a lot of alex jones' content is deeply dangerous. the nature of his delivery and its violence in its words is effective, i think in drumming up anger and really playing on people's sense of fear and anxiety. >> they want a fight, they better believe they got one. >> some who listen to jones have committed acts of violence. one killed police officers. another fired shots at the white house. another opened fire in a d.c. pizza restaurant. and on january 6th, 2021, alex jones and his influence were on full display at the u.s. capitol. >> stop the steal! stop the steal! >> long before they became infamous on january 6th, leaders of the proud boys, the oath keepers, the stop the steal

movement, all were deeply connected to alex jones. >> once you start looking at all the different places he appears in our culture, you understand that he has had an outsized level of influence for somebody like him. and part of that is because he was able to fly under the radar for so long. >> jones grew up in a small suburb of dallas where even as a young man he would act out and spin tall tales. bo durham was a friend from jones' neighborhood. >> there was a lot of strange things going on in that time with him there was a lot of things that i witnessed that were people didn't do. >> friends claim he memorized the bible, talked about satan, and at times seemed possessed. >> he would talk in tongues a lot. he would get into these trances. >> high school football coach said jones craved attention. >> i don't believe in my witchcraft, hocus-pocus or anything like that, but he could turn his tongue black and his

mouth black. and he would stick his tongue out and shake his head as though he were possessed. >> he could turn his tongue black. i saw him do that on a couple of occasions. >> you're the second person who has told me this. >> uh-huh. >> i don't get it. >> i don't either. he would have to be really spun up and kind of in that state where he was really upset. he would stick that tongue out, and it would literally go black. >> and he was violent. >> once i hit puberty, i became somewhat of a hellion. a lot of fighting. >> including one fight that would change his life. for years, jones has told viewers the story of why he and his family had the leave suburban dallas and why he's obsessed with government corruption. >> we were having an auditorium meeting about drug testing. they had cops up there that i knew were drug dealers. i stood up and said i was at a pool party. he was selling cocaine and

ecstasy last week. they took me in an office, rammed my head in the wall and told me we're going kill you. they told me you're going to move out of this town right now. >> that's the furthest thing from the truth. i can unequivocally deny that that ever happened. >> randy tally and others who spoke to cnn remember it differently. not a fight involving a corrupt police force, but alex jones attacking another student named jared morrow. >> i saw jared's feet go up in the air, and then i saw alex drop down, which, you know, they call it a pile driver. and he pile derived him. >> jones slammed morrow head-first into the floor. morrow tells cnn he suffered a concussion and nine skull fractures that will not heal. >> as far as fights go, that was the most brutal i had seen. >> after alex's fighting troubles, the jones family would

quietly move to austin. >> hello, austin, texas, i'm alex jones. >> in the mid 1990s, jones would eventually find the attention he craved, spreading lies, conspiracy theories on cable access tv. >> trying to get the information out to you folks. >> i had a camera a foot away from my face, and i was controlling the systems myself. and i went live. and i talked for an hour. >> so sick of wimps and scum, filthy scum everywhere. weak ones that never got in a fistfight. >> there was no social media, right? so what this was basically was sort of a local youtube. anybody could have a show. >> alex inspired a lot of folks. there was 20 alexs on the air at that time. a lot of guys were doing very similar things. but he stood out. >> black helicopters are being used for surveillance of the public. >> so it's a little bit more risky. >> kelly jones, jones' ex-wife met and worked for him at the public access station. they would later fall out in a bitter divorce.

>> if you ever spend any amount of time with him, he is not like you or me. he is abnormal. like he's really strange and weird. >> i'm a weird son of a gun. of course i'm weird. >> that weirdness mixed with his charisma would make jones an austin superstar. he would get a time slot on a local radio station that later went national. >> when he was younger, he was very articulate, very dynamic. he looks great on camera. >> he would pull stunts, demanding attention on austin street corners. >> this is how george bush dresses. >> got a radio show, got tv shows. >> we'll continue to keep you posted on what's going on in oklahoma city. >> he would spin mayor news events, no marry matter how tragic, into darker conspiracies. >> the government had prior knowledge and was instrumental in engineering the attacks on the alfred p. murrow building in oklahoma city. >> today's attack at columbine high school could be the worst

mass shooting in united states history. >> columbine we know was a false flag. >> he took advantage of a new forum, streaming on the internet at a time when half the country didn't yet have access to the web. >> and don't believe me. go to infowars.com. >> by september 2001, jones had built a following willing to believe just about anything. >> police have cleared off all these streets. >> then on a clear tuesday morning, september 11th, alex jones, who had spent a lifetime trying to get attention, would see a tragedy as his biggest opportunity yet. . >> we have been predicting this nightmarish development for years. arodontax active gum health. it kills 99% of plaque bacteria and forms an antibacterial shield. try parodontax active gum health mouthwash. so this is the meta portal plus. a smart video calling device that makes working from home, work. it syncs with your favorite vc apps

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smoke, a search for missing loved ones and a nation seeking a way forward. alex jones would spread the lie that his own government was to blame. >> i'm telling you right now, 90% chance it came from the u.s. government or from the eu. >> the critical moment over the arc of alex jones' life is when he seizes on what's called the 9/11 truth movement. which should really be called the 9/11 hoax movement, that 9/11 was an inside job. >> that america today is on bended knee. >> the outrageous lie that the government of george w. bush had plotted, planned and aided the attack. believers would be come to known as truthers. >> my friends, the government just didn't have prior knowledge of september 11th al qaeda attacks. they actually funded, trained, protected, coddled, shepherded al qaeda into this country. >> even for alex jones this time he went too far. a majority of the stations carrying his radio show canceled it. >> everything that was supposed

to destroy him did have a negative impact, but also catapulted him to a higher level. >> as jones would explain in an interview years later obtained by cnn, his 9/11 lies made him a conspiracy superstar. >> that launched this whole cult deal to the whole world. i didn't realize how big it was, that i was the leader of the 9/11 truth movement. >> 9/11 smoking guns. >> he starts putting out these videos that are adjuncts to his radio show and internet show, spreading these conspiracy theories and starts to build a cult-like following around these lies. >> stop making excuses for what they're doing to us. >> when alex goes on camera, and he gets himself riled up and starts shouting and starts getting hysterical, it's what his audience feel like inside, and he played the character that they wanted to hear for them, the angry, furious person that wanted to take back america. >> 2008 brought barack obama. a new slew of conspiracy

theories, and more success for info wars. >> ladies and gentlemen, barack obama is not my king. he is not my master. he is not my lord. he is nothing but a mask of the -- >> we're standing in front of the islamic center of america. >> he would stir up fears of muslims taking over the united states for years, and sent joe biggs, who would later become a leader of the proud boys on so-called reporting trips across the country. former info wars employee josh owens was part of the production team. >> they wanted us to go to these majority muslim communities and report on why these people in these communities, what's going on, that seemed suspicious. there was nothing to it. >> no sharia law overruling the united states government. >> no, no. but that's what jones wanted. we made up the stories because there was nothing to report on. in essence, we lied. >> and with the growing

popularity of social media, jones finally had the outlet that would be a perfect amplifier for his outrage. >> a lot of his clips would go viral. alex jones used platforms like facebook, like twitter, like youtube to draw people in. >> they would promote and amplify the kind of content that gets people most engaged. >> he knew if he made videos that were more extreme, more outrageous, more shouty. >> clean them out! >> youtube would give it to people that were looking for him. and 80% of his views were from youtube recommendations were for people who weren't looking for his content. a huge amount of info wars' success was the algorithms. >> court documents show his audience nearly doubled in four years. >> he wants to give people what they came there to get. >> true or not? >> true or not. when there was a mass shooting, there was a definite get everything you can to try to prove that it was a false event. >> this is cnn breaking news.

>> connecticut state police have responded to reports of a shooting at sandy hook elementary school. >> the bodies of those children are still in the school. >> 20 children, six adults, and the shooter. 27 total. >> don't ever think the globalists that have hijacked this country wouldn't stage something like this. they kill little kids all day, every day. >> the day of the sandy hook shooting proved nothing was offlimits, even the slaughter of children. >> i said they are launching attacks. they are going to come after our guns. look for mass shootings. and then magically, it happens. >> jones claimed it was a government plot, a false flag. the grieving parents crisis actors. >> you've got parents laughing and then they walk over and see the camera and -- >> what alex and the crew is doing was accusing parents of an unspeakable tragedy of being liars as well. it was the grossest level of

insult i can imagine. >> the whole thing is a giant hoax. >> people tend to think well alex jones maybe got on his show several time and said sandy hook was fake. and the reality was it was an obsession he could not let go of. >> jones' audience ate it up. one info wars article claiming fbi says no one killed at sandy hook was viewed more than three million times. there. >> have been sandy hook fanatics who show up at family houses and start banging on their door. they continually harass these parents. >> i don't think you can find a lower person than somebody like alex jones. >> neil heslan lost his 6-year-old in that shooting. >> alex jones has put a lot of lives in danger, a lot of families' lives in danger and at risk. >> he and others have sued jones over his lies. mark bankston representing some of the families. >> at info wars, there is a

nearly bottomless well of hatred and cruelty. they do not care about the normal things you expect people to care about. >> dan hired dan badondi to cover sandy hook. >> the truth is coming out. you people going to jail. >> it looks like you were just trying to drum up conspiracies, make a spectacle of yourself really. >> it's not -- >> it's complete conspiracy theories. >> no, it's because of the most american public was taking the same thing. how can we trust -- >> most of the american public i guarantee you was not thinking that it was fake. >> no no one is saying it was fake. >> crisis actors? >> i didn't say that. i know they're not crisis actors. i went the grave sites and memorial and everything was sat sad. it was heartbreaking to see. >> you were all part of it, dan. you were part of that whole conspiracy theory. >> it's still first amendment.

>> alex jones never responded to multiple cnn requests to be interviewed for this program, but talked about sandy hook in a deposition. >> so you do not believe that you've done an outrageous wrong to these parents? >> no, i've not done an outrageous wrong to the parents. i myself feel like a former psychosis where i basically thought everything was stage. now learning a lot of times things aren't staged. as a pundit and someone giving opinion that my opinions have been wrong. but they were never wrong consciously to hurt people. >> so say jesse never existed, he never died, you're defaming this little boy. this is a 6-year-old boy. just awful. there is no words for it. >> donald, thank you for joining us. >> it was this alex jones that in 2015 was singled out, sought after by a presidential candidate named donald trump.

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it's time to stand up in the info war. you want to fight. >> raping and killing children dressed up wyche a werewolf. >> you want to fight? you're going to get it. >> alex jones had established himself as the king of conspiracy theories. >> they put cancer viruses on

record in the vaccines. >> and learned early on his lies could make him cash. >> by the books, the films, the pro-gun, t-shirts. >> you also need to plant a garden. >> i was in my late 20s, and i was making as much money as an nfl quarterback. >> one of the best videos i produced. >> at first jones was selling dvds and successful gear. >> the globalists are filling our water with radioactive isotopes. >> if you go and look at the info wars story, it is a mall of things to buy if you think the world is ending. >> silver bullet from info wars life.com. >> in 2013, jones would discover he could make a fortune selling health products like vitamins and supplements. under the info wars brand. >> i take products that block the estrogen mimickers that

basically fem nice men. >> the vitamins came in and he became astronomically rich. >> how rich? jones has guarded the details of his business, but a massive inflow of money, often hundreds of thousands of dollars a day, adding up to more than $165 million in revenue over a three-year period. much of that money from stoking fears. >> three or four people that have family or themselves have brain tumors suddenly, kids from fungus. >> when jones pushed a new product and hyped concerns about bacteria and fungus, he raked in more than $800,000 in two days. >> when i went to austin and spoke to alex about how much they actually make, it's on another planet. >> a staggering amount? >> totally staggering. >> how long? >> five minutes. >> caolan robertson had inside access to the info wars operation. >> he'll say buy these products, buy these products. at the end, the first thing he'll say after a show is what were the sales after the show, as how many people signed up live while it was broadcast.

not was it a good show, did we expose the truth? truth doesn't really matter at all. >> basically, a three hour a day infomercial to sell pills. >> yeah, it's like a far right qvc. >> i ended up editing the very first ad for the very first rival label product that he put out which was an iodine supplement called survival shield. >> the machine will blow sky-high. >> the iodine drops were marketed as protection from nuclear fallout. jones sent a team to california to find radiation from japan's fukushima disaster. >> none of us really knew how to use a geiger counter. we just posted video we weren't finding elevated levels. >> how was that received? >> they had never seen him so angry because we were posting what we were finding. i started to get the idea, okay, maybe our job isn't to report the truth. maybe our job is to report what jones thinks the truth.

>> and? to sell pills? >> absolutely. >> there are unanswered questions. another info wars distributor, anthony said in a 2014 court document obtained by cnn he would write about topics to promote the brand and sell products. one example ebola. >> they said ebola is a real threat, that outbreaks are actually happening in the united states. they're going unreported. >> viewers weren't told he was also getting a cut of the supplement business. . >> i think it's important for people to understand that they're paying money to and aligning themselves with an outlet that is entirely deceptive and that just wants their money. >> it sounds like a grift, really. >> yes, i think that really is what it is. it's a con. >> you have the great brain pill, nootropic. >> we he would joke about the people who would buy his products. when i first met him, i said i had bought his brain force. he was surprised.

why? people that buy his stuff are silly. >> we're closer to world war iii than this planet has ever been. >> as the money poured in, jones put some back into the business, making sure his show looked like a real newscast. >> this is the third we built. >> everyone is rushing around him with scripts and show plans. and it's like a military operation to make it technically perfect and totally perfect. yet he is going on air and saying completely outlandish, insane, ridiculous, over the top things. it was a very strange contrast. >> how does he decide what goes on that show? >> it all comes from jones' brain. >> can't call this crap anymore. >> you can tell a lot of it is off the cuff. a lot of sitcoming from an emotional place, reactionary place. >> his behavior off the air i have heard could be even violent. >> yeah. there was physical violence. jones used to play these punching games. he punched an employee so hard

that his arm split open. i mean, there was blood on his shirt. >> america is back! >> reporter: jones' emotional place was macho, alpha male, and always on the attack. >> it's time for gun people who have the real strength of life to stand up against this filth. >> and in 2015, that would play right into the hands of a presidential candidate sharing the same message. >> donald, thank you for joining us. >> thank you, alex. great. great to be with you. >> alex jones would explain how it was roger stone, trump's long-time ally, who initial updated the strategy of putting donald trump side by side with info wars. >> he contacted me and said i'm about to publish books about the biggest enemies of trump. and i believe that if we can take them out with how corrupt they are, this will pave the way the get trump in, and he is one of us. he is nationalist. >> i just want to finish by saying your reputation is amazing. i will not let you down.

>> that moment encapsulates the mainstreaming of conspiracy theories and hate that we've seen in u.s. politics. >> after that, it became frighteningly trump in alex's office. it was wait, this place is extremely polarized towards one candidate. and it's never been this way before. it's sort of a momentum change. >> hillary is in like creepy, weird sick stuff, man. >> hillary for president! >> jones went all in as only he could. hillary clinton, trump's opponent, would be labeled satanic. >> i've talked to people that are in protective details. i mean, they're scared of her. they say listen, she is a fricking demon, and she stinks and so does obama. like what? sulfur. they smell like hell. >> during the 2016 campaign, jones began targeting democrats with one of his most unhinged conspiracy theories. >> pizzagate is real. >> pizzagate is a conspiracy

theory that hillary clinton and leading democrats were engaged in a satanic pedophilic cabal, that in this case was meeting in the basement of comic pizza in washington, d.c. >> you have to go investigate it for yourself. >> one of jones' followers edgar welch did just that. >> he kicked in the kitchen doors and then proceeded to shoot at a locked door. the bullets pierced through here. >> reporter: behind that locked door just a closet. james alafantis who owns the restaurant says there is no doubt who to blame. >> this gunman had been directly motived by a video by alex jones. every day i get a death threat. it's been 5 1/2, 6 years since this has happened and it really fundamentally changed my life. >> on the verge of 2016 election, polls show hillary clinton leading. alex jones and roger stone pushed a new conspiracy to try

to explain why trump may lose. it was the birth of stop the steal. >> you're having your republic stolen if front of you. >> then trump won. >> right now a historic moment. we can now project donald trump wins the presidency. >> info wars would rake in $850,000 in sales in its most lucrative day in three years. a president who pushed lies, conspiracy theories, and disinformation was heading to the white house with jones' help, the info war against a democracy was put in motion. it's your future. so you don't lose sight of the big picture, even when you're focused on what's happening right now. and thinkorswim® is right there with you. to help you become a smarter investor. with an innovative trading platform full of customizable tools. dedicated trade desk pros and a passionate trader community

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with trump in office, jones and info wars were riding high. >> i talked to the president, and i talked to people who talk to the president every day. >> jones took credit for trump's win. told followers and those around him he had trump's ear. >> jones said it all the time. just got off the phone with trump. trump just called. just had an interesting conversation with trump. >> believe it? >> i don't know. he showed me text messages he had shared with trump while trump was in the white house. that shocked me. i thought as soon as trump took office, he would not speak to any of those people. but they had like a relationship going on. >> was it a conversation? >> more so from alex's side. but there was a two-way conversation going on. trying to convince him to come on again which alex really wanted, to come on again.

>> trump never came back on info wars, but it didn't matter. money was rolling in. jones appeared invincible. >> the truth is my average video was getting three or four million views. >> but behind the scenes something had changed. >> i wish i never -- with trump. >> social media had started taking tougher stances on hate speech. >> they decided to platform my billions and billions of views and millions of followers off of everything from itunes to google to youtube to spotify. >> jones would blame the scrutiny of info wars on his alignment with trump. caolan robinson documented these moments and shared them with cnn. >> i'm so sick of donald trump, man. god i'm sick of him. but i'm not doing this because i'm like kissing his ass, you know. >> jones struggled with his words, asked for a retake. >> this is the real quote, because what i said earlier

wasn't accurate. so please use this quote. i'm really glad that i backed donald trump three years ago, three and a half years ago for president. but that said, being sucked into that whole vortex as been quite instructional. i'm sorry. i'm going get it straight this time. this is really important what i'm going to say. and i'm just trying to get this exactly right. and exactly truthful. >> he tried again. >> so trump came to get my populist audience, and then he did that. the democrats saw it as a threat and attacked it. it made trump stronger. it made him win the election. and so they understand that donald trump is info wars, and that i'm donald trump now. and it's like a ring of doom. we've been merged together into this -- into this thing. and they're obsessed with it. and it's some bizarre form of alchemy that i don't understand.

>> despite his feelings when trump announced he would run for reelection, alex jones was right back on board. >> what the democrats and the globalists are doing is insurrection against the country. >> he would attack the bidens and lie about a rigged election. >> dark forces trying to steal the election. >> voters are in the final hours of making a monumental decision. >> as ballots were being counted across america, it was becoming clear trump was about to lose. >> they're trying to steal an election. they're trying to rig an election. and we can't let that happen. >> there is no doubt it is donald trump who is most responsible for millions of people believing the lie that he won and the election was stolen. but it is undeniable it is alex jones who spent months telling his followers to revolt. >> they'll be in there and talk with them. they will be hiding. they will pay.

they will be destroyed because america is righteous. they want to fight, they better believe they've got one. >> immediately after the election, jones would appear at rallies across the country with his bullhorn. >> joe biden, burn in hell! >> and an armored vehicle. >> 1776! >> resurrecting the slogan that roger stone had coined in 2016, stop the steal. >> stop the steal! stop the steal! >> raising money, firing up crowds, running sales on info war, and calling his followers to action. >> everybody needs to be around that white house supporting. they need to see patriots in the streets of d.c. >> alex, alex! the fight has just begun! the fight has just begun! >> each speech aggressive and foreboding. >> we will never give up. we will never surrender.

we will never back down to the satanic pedophile globalist new world order. >> even other organizers planning stop the steal rallies like dustin stockton say jones was going too far. >> we could sense that like this was a really volatile situation. we also were trying to keep it from crossing that line into violence. they're fire brands. and when you are doing that, it's kind of an exponential growth as how outrageous you have to be. >> on december 19th, 2020, donald trump tells his followers big protests in d.c. on january 6th. be there. will be wild. alex jones never looked back. >> we just need people to start going to these things now. don't wait. go to d.c. go to d.c. go to d.c. go to the white house. just go to the white house. go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go! >> january 6th -- >> fight for trump. >> his show became a commercial

for trump's rally. and on new year's eve, info wars guest host matt bracken said this. >> we're going to only be saved by millions of americans moving to washington, occupying the entire area, if necessary, storming right into the capitol. >> jones told his audience he was intimately involved in the planning of the january 6th rally. >> i put the money down. this is all private, folks. it was hundreds of thousands of dollars. and then a big donor came through and took care of that for us. it's not about me bragging, it's just people know the history. >> as crowds gathered in washington, d.c. on the night before the big rally, jones would warn of a coming battle. >> this will be their waterloo. this will be their destruction. >> the next day, jones was front and center for trump's speech. >> we're going walk down to the capitol. >> with megaphone in hand, jones then led a crowd to the capitol.

>> let's go take our country back! it's only minutes away. let's start marching to the capitol! >> when he arrived, it was chaos. trump supporters were in hand-to-hand combat with police. >> let's march around to the other side and let's not fight the police and give the system what they want. we were peaceful. . >> the west side was anything but peaceful. as jones was leading a crowd to the other side, the capitol was breached. jones arrived on the capitol's east side, climbed steps packed with rioters, and called for peace, but also revolution. >> 1776! >> a new world order. >> jones cease it all and takes off. >> fight for trump! fight for trump! >> just minutes after jones left, a mob trying to force the

east capitol doors would push their way through. from a perch overlooking the capitol, he would rejoin info wars broadcast and start a new conspiracy theory. >> this is the bureaucracy. antifa started this we're pretty much sure. >> these were trump supporters, including extremists with deep ties to alex jones. look how nice they are. the moment you become an expedia member, you can instantly start saving on your travels. so you can go and see all those, lovely, lemony, lemons. ♪ and never wonder if you got a good deal. because you did. ♪ so this is the meta portal plus. a smart video calling device that makes working from home, work. it syncs with your favorite vc apps so you'll never miss a meeting.

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influenced was on display. at least 20 of those arrested either works under alex jones, appeared on his show or followed his content. the mother of one writer told a judge, her son believes everything alex jones has to say. another writer who allegedly tased a police officer told fbi agents alex jones inspired his journey. >> how did you start going to these rallies? >> he had awards.

>> both keeper founder, stuart rose, a frequent guest whose phone contained an encrypted chat that contained jones, pleaded not guilty . cnn has learned the january 6th collects select committee investigators want to know about his involved funding for the rally. the planning to the capital and the ties to extremists now charged with conspiring against the government. >> i said this, my lawyer told me almost 100 times today during the interrogation, and the advice of counsel i am a

starting my fifth amendment right to remain silent. >> jones said he refused to answer the questions about january 6th, but tilled his audience he knew nothing about it. >> they already knew i needed to know anything. i was even talking about everybody should be peaceful. >> he was talking about a peaceful type of fight but that is not how it actually translated to the people that follow alex jones. his former employees are now convinced that they are a sham. >> i was facing a personal reckoning. it took me longer to get the courage to leave. >> almost sounds like you are breaking away from occult. >> oh, yeah, absolutely. i think there are many aspects of being in joneses world, being a listener, subscribing to those ideas that are cold- like. >> @kalynn robinson x mc break-away. >> what do you say to the

people that are wrapped up in this world of info wars and believe these conspiracies? >> i would just tell them directly that alex doesn't care about them and that they are just being used for money. >> and his business model, making money from supplements means the empire is virtually untouchable. >> alex jones operates an organization unlike any other. you can't put pressures on them by going after the advertisers. he will do whatever he wants. joneses feeling pressure from the lawsuit filed by the families of sandy hook victims. he was found liable and it could cost him victims. a new lawsuit accuses him of moving tens of millions of dollars to protect his fortune which jones denies. he now admits they were murdered, yet in a recent deposition still holds onto his

conspiracy theory. >> the throughput is deep down i still have many questions around a lot of the anomalies and the weird stuff going on. >> even in the wake of yet another horrific school shooting, joneses added again. >> i would predict a lot of mass shootings right before the election and then like clockwork it is happening. >> alex will not stop. this is what people have to understand about alex. will his behavior stay the same? absolutely. >> while jones continues to spread his message, it is his past lies that leave permanent pain. >> alex jones right about sandy hook. there is no closure to it. and i'm fighting every day for something.

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>> the story of watergate when you boil it to its essence is about the abuse of power by somebody in a position to exercise that power. >> nixon wanted to win. so, he engaged in activities that were criminal to secure his victory. >> the wiretapping of his political opponents. >> conspiracy. extortion. black male