A prominent nemesis of Alex Jones was already suing X owner Elon Musk on behalf of a 22-year-old Jewish man for spreading, on his own platform, a false rumor that the private citizen with no actual connection to a neo-Nazi “street brawl” was an undercover federal agent participating in a “probable false flag situation.” Now, Texas attorney Mark Bankston is pursuing sanctions against Musk’s high-profile attorney following an “astonishingly unprofessional” deposition in Benjamin Brody’s lawsuit, during which Alex Spiro called the case “stupid.”
Bankston filed a motion for sanctions against Spiro on Monday in Travis County, claiming that the “Madison Avenue celebrity lawyer” represented Musk at a March 27 deposition without any notice, without a license to practice law in Texas, and without court permission to participate in the case pro hac vice.
In doing so, the Musk attorney “brazenly engaged in unauthorized practice of law by signing and preparing Musk’s pleadings, showing up unannounced to defend Musk’s deposition with no authority to practice law in Texas, and drafting and serving subsequent legal demands to Plaintiff,” the sanctions motion argued, before accusing Spiro of engaging in “astonishingly unprofessional” behavior during the deposition.
Claiming Spiro “seriously overstepped his bounds,” the motion criticized the Musk lawyer for constant interruptions and mocking “commentary” during the deposition.
The lengthy deposition transcript shows that the March 27 sit-down was rocky out of the gate, with Bankston telling Spiro, “You’re violating Rule 199, you’re not even pro hac admitted.”
“Okay. Okay. you’re just giving speeches that nobody’s listening to but you. You’re just doing them for yourself,” Spiro shot back.
“Oh, they’re for the record. Mr. Spiro, they’re for the Court to listen to,” Bankston replied, before asking Spiro not to interrupt him and threatening to move for sanctions. Spiro said he didn’t care about the rule that Bankston kept reading.
An even testier exchange ensued when Spiro said “This isn’t like a real case. This is just some stupid—,” the transcript shows. Voices were raised and tensions clearly heightened.
The sanctions motion said that Spiro’s “outrageous conduct continued to grow more unprofessional as he grew angrier.” Bankston surmised that was “almost certainly” because Musk had offered “extraordinarily damning testimony” on several points, including that the Musk post on X at issue referred to Brody without naming him:
Bankston is remembered as the lawyer for Sandy Hook families who had a “Perry Mason moment” of sorts while informing Infowars host Alex Jones during his testimony at his Texas defamation trial that Jones’ attorneys “messed up and sent me an entire digital copy of your entire cell phone with every text message you’ve sent for the past two years.”
“Mr. Jones, during discovery, you were asked, ‘Do you have Sandy Hook text messages on your phone?’ And you said, ‘No,’ correct?” Bankston asked Jones in August 2022, wondering if the Infowars host knew what perjury is.
Jones acknowledged that he answered “no” under oath, but he insisted he “did not lie” when he said so.
Still, Bankston memorialized the moment in his bio on X: “Caught Alex Jones lying on the stand.” Jones infamously (and at great cost to himself) called the Sandy Hook school massacre of children a “false flag,” and now Bankston is suing the owner of X for giving credence to false rumors that Brody was “engaged in ‘a probable false flag situation.””
Law&Crime reached out to Spiro for comment.
Read the sanctions motion here.
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