For Jan. 6, Mr. Jones helped safe at the least $650,000 from a Publix grocery-store heiress, Julie Fancelli, an Infowars fan, to underwrite Mr. Trump’s rally on the Ellipse the morning of the assault, $200,000 of which was deposited into certainly one of Mr. Jones’s enterprise accounts, the Home committee investigating the Jan. 6 assault mentioned. The evening earlier than the riot Mr. Jones was on the Willard Intercontinental Resort in Washington, the place Trump aides and allies had arrange an outpost. He has longtime ties to at the least a half-dozen individuals arrested after the riot, together with the founding father of the far-right Oath Keepers militia, Stewart Rhodes, nonetheless an everyday visitor on Infowars, and Joseph Biggs, a former Infowars worker and Proud Boys chief.
The Home committee has subpoenaed Mr. Jones, and included a three-page listing in search of his associated communications and monetary data. The panel can also be in search of Mr. Jones’s communications with Mr. Trump, his household and anybody from the White Home or Congress within the days earlier than the riot. Questioned by the panel this 12 months, Mr. Jones invoked his Fifth Modification proper towards self-incrimination greater than 100 instances, and is making an attempt to dam the committee’s demand for data in court docket.
Regardless of the final result of the Jan. 6 investigation, Mr. Jones’s journey from Sandy Hook to the assault on the Capitol is a mirrored image of how conspiracy theories in america have metastasized and corroded public discourse within the digital age. A defender of President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia and a former common on RT, the Kremlin-funded worldwide tv outlet, Mr. Jones espoused such excessive views of American democratic society — he has solid airport safety screenings as a plot to usurp Individuals’ freedoms — that in 2011 RT stopped inviting him on air.
However after Mr. Trump appeared stay in an interview on Infowars’ web site in December 2015, Mr. Jones traveled from the fringes to develop into a part of a newly radicalized Republican Get together. Infowars grossed greater than $50 million yearly through the Trump presidency by promoting weight loss plan dietary supplements, physique armor and different merchandise on its web site, data filed in court docket point out. Throughout and after the Jan. 6 riot, Infowars promoted its merchandise alongside graphic movies, together with footage by an Infowars cameraman of the capturing dying of a pro-Trump rioter, Ashli Babbitt, by a Capitol Police officer through the assault.
Mr. Jones didn’t reply to messages in search of remark. His lawyer, Norm Pattis, mentioned his consumer had accomplished nothing flawed on Jan. 6. Video footage from the Capitol that day exhibits Mr. Jones utilizing a bullhorn to attempt to discourage individuals from rioting.
