> Kafkaesque level farce, if the the Judge literally threatens you, and your lawyers with jail for daring to testify that you're not guilty during your own trial. Just think about it.
Not during; after. Similarly, you can't argue innocence at criminal sentencing proceedings.
It wasn't his trial though, he lost that by default judgement for failing to produce documents including financial records, he can't say he's not guilty because he isn't it would be a lie. We know a lot of those documents exist because Jones's lawyers accidentally sent a copy of his entire phone with records that should have been produced.
You're right is almost never done, not many cases are lost by default because most defendants and their lawyers aren't incompetent enough to get to that point. They had years to comply with discovery or demonstrate that they did not have access to the documents
> testify that you're not guilty during your own trial.
> Not allowed to make any sort of free speech / free press argument
He didn't get to raise those because they're not relevant at a damages hearing. If he'd complied with discovery instead of blocking it every chance he got he would have had the ability to raise those at trial. He was warned, he persisted and was punished for it. We know his lawyers had the documents because they accidentally turned them over later then failed to raise an objection that would have stopped them from being shared and used during the damages hearing.
> Reporting on it
He didn't just report on things he made statements as facts that it was staged, the kids are still alive/were never alive, doxxed Pozner's home address and was one of the first to do so in the days after the shooting. It's not just reporting that got Jones in trouble.
He did it and he did it to himself because the optics of fighting a "show trial" were better for him and his supplement business than the slim chance he could win if he fought the trial legitimately.
