A Connecticut trial related to the conspiracy theorist Alex Jones ’s statements on the Sandy Hook school massacre took an unexpected turn Friday as the Infowars founder avoided the witness stand and criticized the proceedings—and the presiding judge—outside the courthouse. Mr. Jones had been expected to take the stand for a second day in a case that will determine how much he should pay for making defamatory statements about the 2012 shooting in Newtown, Conn., where a gunman killed 20 children and six adults. For years, he claimed to his audience of listeners that the massacre was a government hoax.

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