Between inadvertently promoting the consumption of big ol’ bowls of chili and smoking marijuana to test its strength, the brewing child custody battle between Alex Jones and his ex-wife, Kelly Jones has been… interesting. Especially now that the faux performance artist wants the judge presiding over the case to declare a mistrial after the prosecution showed jurors clips from his Joe Rogan Experience interview without prior approval. State District Judge Orlinda Naranjo denied Jones’ request, but not before instructing the jury to disregard the video they’d watched the previous day.
According to The Daily Beast, which first reported Jones’ demand for a mistrial, Judge Naranjo on Thursday “made it very clear his political beliefs are not relevant” to the trial. Using this as a basis for their argument, the legal team representing the InfoWars host asked for a mistrial after allegedly “edited” clips from their client’s appearance on Rogan’s radio show were shown to jurors the day before. Mainly, they contended, because the subject of Donald Trump’s infamous Access Hollywood tape came up in the pair’s conversation.
“When you’re a celebrity, women throw themselves at you,” Jones said in the clip, per the Austin-American Statesman. “A woman climbing on top of you is not sexual assault, that’s what mammals do.” The details of actual mammalian reproductive practices and their differences across species notwithstanding, Judge Naranjo ultimately agreed with Jones’ lawyers partially as the prosecution hadn’t sought prior approval to show the footage to the jury.
This wasn’t the first time Judge Naranjo prevented an otherwise damning clip of Jones to be admitted as evidence. On Tuesday, footage of Alex and his son throwing darts at a board with Hillary Clinton’s face on it was deemed inadmissible due to it possibly swaying the jury via personal politics.
(Via The Daily Beast and Austin-American Statesman)