The doctor who said Alex Jones was too sick to attend his deposition in a lawsuit over his false claims about the Sandy Hook massacre on Wednesday is the same man who appeared on the far-right conspiracy theorist’s Infowars show two days earlier to call Covid-19 vaccines “poison”, it has emerged.
Dr Benjamin Marble was “alarmed” by his observations of Mr Jones on Monday and advised him to go to an emergency room or to call 911, according to court documents filed by Mr Jones’ attorneys on Wednesday.
When Mr Jones refused, the Florida-based physician told him to remain at home, the documents state.
The same day the doctor allegedly had concerns for Mr Jones’ health, he appeared live on his Infowars show where he pushed the conspiracy theory that the nation’s top doctor Dr Anthony Fauci “created” Covid-19 and is “the greatest mass murderer in the history of the world”.
“We know he created this Frankenstein virus, this man-made virus,” said Dr Marble.
“Every Covid death is a murder by Dr death Fauci which is why I say he is the greatest mass murderer in the history of the world.”
Dr Marble then told Mr Jones that the Covid-19 vaccine is a “poison”.
Evidence from the medical community shows that the vaccine is effective at protecting people from hospitalisation and death from Covid-19.
Dr Marble is a member of right-wing group America’s Frontline Doctors and created a free telehealth website for Covid-19, which touts unsubstantiated treatments for the virus including the use of anti-parasite drug ivermectin.
The US FDA advises people not to use ivermectin to treat or prevent Covid-19, saying there is no evidence that it is an effective treatment.
The agency has warned that it has received multiple reports of patients who have required medical attention, including hospitalisation, after self-medicating with ivermectin intended for livestock.
The revelation that the doctor advising Mr Jones to skip his deposition is the same doctor who made unproven claims about Covid-19 on his show comes after Mr Jones was scheduled to testify under oath on Wednesday morning in Austin, Texas.
The deposition is part of settlement proceedings in defamation cases he lost against the families of victims killed in the 2012 mass shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School.
Mr Jones was found guilty of defamation in multiple cases after he claimed the massacre was “a hoax” and that the six and seven-year-old children murdered were “actors”.
The far-right extremist breached the court order and failed to appear for the deposition.
His attorneys had filed a motion on Monday saying that he was too sick to attend.
The motion included a seven-sentence letter from an unnamed physician who cited unspecified “medical conditions” that mean Mr Jones “is remaining at home”.
However, the Infowars host continued to broadcast his show live on Monday and Tuesday - from a studio that his attorneys later admitted he had left his home to go to. On Wednesday, he did not appear to be in person on his show but talked over the phone for part of it.
In a court hearing on Tuesday, Connecticut Superior Court Judge Barbara Bellis turned down his request to delay the deposition and ordered that it go ahead as planned on Wednesday.
Following Mr Jones’ no-show, he is now scheduled to appear for the deposition on Thursday, with the attorneys for the Sandy Hook victims’ families calling on the court to arrest him for civil contempt if he fails to show again.
Mr Jones’ attorneys filed an amended motion on Wednesday asking again for the deposition to be delayed.
This time the documents identified the previously unnamed doctor telling Mr Jones to stay home as Dr Marble.
According to the filing, “Mr Jones’ nonappearance comes upon the advice of Dr Benjamin Marble who arrived in Austin to visit him on March 20, 2022”.
The following day - the day of the Infowars show - Dr Marble’s “personal observations of Mr Jones so alarmed him that he insisted on conducting a physical examination of Mr Jones”, says the filing.
“He immediately advised Mr. Jones to go to an emergency room or call 911. After Mr Jones refused, the physician advised him to stay home, which Mr Jones did not do.”
The court document says that Dr Marble then arranged for Mr Jones to undergo “a comprehensive medical workup” on Wednesday with a second doctor Dr Amy Offutt.
After evaluating Mr Jones, Dr Offutt told him he should “avoid too much stress until we have the results of the blood tests”.
Mr Jones’ attorneys previously told the court they could not reveal the identity of the physician who had advised him to stay at home earlier in the week.
In Wednesday’s filing they provided the names of the two doctors and sworn statements from them, however the nature of Mr Jones’ alleged sickness continues to be a mystery.
“I stand by my recommendation that Mr Jones neither attend a deposition nor return to work until the test results are completed and returned,” said Dr Marble in his sworn statement.
He added that he believes “Mr Jones stands at serious risk of harm”.
Dr Offutt’s statement also advised him not to attend court.
Judge Bellis denied the amended motion saying that Mr Jones “broadcast live from his studio on Monday and Tuesday, in disregard of Dr Marble’s purported instructions to stay home and rest”.
“Additionally, plaintiffs’ counsel alleges that even today, Mr Jones called into his show, speaking on the war in Ukraine, although the court has no evidence to confirm that,” she wrote.
“Mr Jones cannot unilaterally decide to continue to engage in his broadcasts, but refuse to participate in a deposition.”
The Independent has reached out to Dr Marble for comment.
The deposition is the latest step in a years-long lawsuit brought by families of victims of the 2012 Sandy Hook massacre against Mr Jones.
On 14 December 2012, 20 students aged six and seven years old and six staff members were shot and killed by 20-year-old Adam Lanza at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut.
In the aftermath of what remains the worst crime in modern Connecticut history, Mr Jones made several false claims that the mass shooting was a “false flag” operation engineered by the government to bring about stricter gun control laws.
Through his radio show and his website, he told his following that the shooting was “completely fake with actors,” “staged”, “synthetic”, “manufactured” and a “giant hoax”.
The families of Sandy Hook victims were subjected to years of in-person and online harassment over his false claims, all the while Mr Jones financially profited by spreading the conspiracies.
Four separate defamation lawsuits were brought by the families of 10 victims in Texas and Connecticut against him over his false claims.
After rumbling on for years, in November, Judge Bellis ruled on the fourth and final lawsuit, finding Mr Jones guilty by default.
With the families winning all defamation cases against the conspiracy theorist, jury trials will now decide how much he has to pay them.
