DOJ official ordered to drop inquiry into FBI agent's role in Sandy Hook lawsuit against Alex Jones
Blanche directs withdrawal of Sept. 15 inquiry into former FBI agent William Aldenberg; Ed Martin Jr.'s weaponization group at the center of the controversy
A Department of Justice official has ordered the withdrawal of an inquiry into former FBI agent William Aldenberg's involvement in the Sandy Hook defamation lawsuit against Alex Jones, a person familiar with the matter said Wednesday.
Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche directed a senior DOJ official to drop the Sept. 15 inquiry letter, which sought information about Aldenberg, who responded to the 2012 Newtown school shooting and was a plaintiff in the suit that led to a $1.4 billion judgment against Jones for calling the massacre a hoax. Ed Martin Jr., who leads the Justice Department’s weaponization working group, had sent the letter to Christopher Mattei, the Sandy Hook families' lawyer, requesting information about whether Aldenberg had received financial benefits for helping to organize the lawsuit. Jones has accused Democrats and Justice Department officials of orchestrating the lawsuit to silence him. Blanche directed Martin to withdraw the letter, the person familiar with the matter said, and Mattei said he received a new letter from Martin stating there was no investigation of Aldenberg and “I hereby withdraw my request for information.”
“Less than 18 hours after calling out Alex Jones and Ed Martin for their corrupt use of the Department of Justice to harass Sandy Hook families and the heroic FBI agent who ran into that school to save any children he could, I am happy to learn that this so-called inquiry has now been withdrawn, if it ever existed at all,” Mattei said in a statement.
The dispute comes as the broader Sandy Hook litigation remains active in various forms. The 2012 shooting in Newtown, Conn., left 26 people dead, prompting decades of legal battles over the spread of Jones’s conspiracy theories about the massacre. Jones, based in Austin, Texas, repeatedly called the event a hoax in public remarks and on Infowars, though he later said he believed the shooting was “100% real.” The Connecticut defamation trial in 2022 featured testimony from Aldenberg and other law enforcement officers who responded to the scene, including emotionally charged accounts of the aftermath.
In the Connecticut case, Aldenberg testified about being subjected to threats and abuse from individuals who believed Jones’s theories. The verdict against Jones in Connecticut, which totaled about $1.4 billion, followed a separate set of judgments in other jurisdictions, including a $49 million verdict in Texas filed by two parents of a child killed in Newtown. Jones has appealed the verdicts, asserting free-speech and press-right protections, and has sought relief in higher courts while he filed for bankruptcy in 2022. The Sandy Hook plaintiffs have been pursuing liquidation of Infowars assets in Texas state court as part of the bankruptcy proceedings, with some personal belongings being sold to satisfy judgments.
Ed Martin Jr. has led the Justice Department’s weaponization working group since his nomination for top federal prosecutor in Washington was pulled amid bipartisan concerns about his experience and his advocacy for Jan. 6 rioters. The group, created by Attorney General Pam Bondi, is tasked with reviewing the use of government power in politically sensitive cases that conservatives say have targeted them. Martin has also recently been named a special prosecutor to assist in separate mortgage-fraud investigations involving Democratic New York Attorney General Letitia James and U.S. Sen. Adam Schiff. The department did not immediately respond to requests for comment on Wednesday’s developments.
The episode underscores ongoing tensions over how the DOJ is perceived to operate in politically charged cases, even as the department emphasizes its obligation to enforce the law impartially. The withdrawal of the inquiry into Aldenberg’s involvement in the Sandy Hook litigation appears to close, at least for now, a contested thread in a broader dispute over whether law enforcement and prosecutors have been used to influence high-profile political cases. Analysts note that the Justice Department has a long history of handling sensitive investigations with care to avoid appearances of bias, but the public record in this case remains contested and far from resolved.
Requests for comment from the DOJ regarding the withdrawal were not immediately returned. The parties involved in the Sandy Hook litigation, including Mattei, have not indicated further steps on the inquiry, while Jones’s legal team continues to pursue relief through appellate channels and bankruptcy-related collateral proceedings as his finances and public profile remain under close scrutiny.