Infowars host Alex Jones, who is being sued for calling the Sandy Hook shooting a hoax, has hired a controversial Connecticut lawyer to defend him.
“I was aware he wanted to hire another lawyer and now I’m in the case,” confirmed New Haven lawyer Norman Pattis. “I’m looking forward to the fight, there is a lot to talk about in the case.”
Pattis replaces Jones’ original lawyer, Jay Wolman.
Jones is being sued in Superior Court in Bridgeport by the parents and family of some of the 20 first-graders and six educators at Sandy Hook Elementary School killed in a mass shooting in 2012 by Adam Lanza. In his former television, show Jones claimed the shooting was staged by paid actors who faked the children’s deaths.
A well-known figure in the state’s legal community, Pattis is no stranger to controversy. He represented Anna Gristina, called the “Manhattan madam,” known for running a high-profile prostitution ring that allegedly attracted clients such as actor Charlie Sheen, among others.
His biography lists accomplishments in civil rights cases and says he “represents people who face powerful foes.”
Earlier this year, Pattis was condemned by the NAACP for posting a photograph depicting three white-hooded beer cans around a brown beer bottle hanging by the neck from a refrigerator rack on his Facebook page. The caption read “Ku Klux Coors.”
But he also represented members of the Bridgeport Board of Education after the elected board was disbanded under former Mayor Bill Finch. Pattis successfully argued before the state Supreme Court to have the elected board reinstated.
Pattis said that at this point he is still wading “through all the paper” filed by the Sandy Hook families’ law firm, Koskoff, Koskoff and Bieder. Although his first action as Jones’ lawyer was to withdraw a motion to move the case to eastern Connecticut.
“A change of venue in Connecticut is almost never granted,” Pattis explained. “I didn’t want to waste more paper.”