In custody battle, Infowars' Alex Jones argues he is a 'playing a character'

Infowars' Alex Jones is attempting to distance himself from his inflammatory online "persona" as he goes to court with his ex-wife, Kelly Jones, in a renewed custody battle over their 14-year-old son and 9- and 12-year-old daughters, the Austin American-Statesman reports. Kelly Jones is accusing Alex Jones of not being "a stable person." Jones is famous for promoting conspiracy theories, including that Hillary Clinton is a literal sulfuric demon and that the government perpetrated 9/11 and the Sandy Hook massacre. His show is broadcast on 150 stations and Infowars.com gets millions of unique visitors every month and is ranked 387th of all U.S. websites, not far after MLB.com and PBS.org.

"He's not a stable person," Kelly Jones argued. "He says he wants to break Alec Baldwin's neck. He wants J-Lo to get raped. I'm concerned that he is engaged in felonious behavior, threatening a member of Congress … He broadcasts from home. The children are there, watching him broadcast."

But Alex Jones' lawyer argued that "[evaluating] Alex Jones as a father would be like judging Jack Nicholson in a custody dispute based on his performance as the Joker in Batman," the Austin American-Statesman writes.

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"He's playing a character," attorney Randall Wilhite argued at a pretrial hearing. "He is a performance artist."

The Jones' children have lived with Alex Jones since the couple divorced in 2015. In a July 2015 broadcast, Jones brought his then 12-year-old son onto the show: "He is undoubtedly cut out for this, and I intend for him to eclipse what I've done," Jones said at the time. "He's a way greater person than I was at 12. I love you so much, and I didn't mean to get you up here, sweetheart, and tell people how much I love you, but you're so handsome, and you're a good little knight who's going to grow up, I know, to be a great fighter against the enemy."