Liberal Forum

Alex Jones settles Chobani defamation lawsuit and retracts comments about refugees in Twin Falls, Idaho.

Alex Jones backed down. Again.

The far-right conspiracy theorist agreed Wednesday to settle a defamation lawsuit filed against him by Greek yogurt manufacturer Chobani.

The key component of the settlement agreement required him to retract inflammatory comments about refugees and the company he made on his Infowars broadcast last month.

(Jones targeted Chobani when, last summer, three children assaulted a 5-year-old girl. The story spread through right-wing media that the attackers — 14, 10 and 7 — were from refugee families. The false narrative pushed by Jones included the involvement of Syrians, rape and urinating in the victim’s mouth. Jones linked it — along with some unrelated cases of tuberculosis — to Chobani. All of it was untrue.)

“During the week of April 10, 2017, certain statements were made on the Infowars, Twitter feed and YouTube channel regarding Chobani LLC that I now understand to be wrong.

The tweets and video have now been retracted, and will not be re-posted,” Jones said.

“On behalf of Infowars, I regret that we mischaracterized Chobani, its employees and the people of Twin Falls, Idaho, the way we did.”

It marks the latest blow to Jones, who in March apologized and issued a retraction to a Washington, D.C.-based pizzeria for his broadcast’s role in pushing a false story about a child sex ring that involved Hillary Clinton.

And just over two weeks ago, Jones’ ex-wife won the right to determine who his three children would live with in a high-profile custody case in which his lawyers argued his on-air personality was a performance.

Jones, whose YouTube channel has more than 2 million subscribers, drew the ire of Chobani when in early April he published a video and promoted it on Twitter with a headline that read “Idaho Yogurt Maker Caught Importing Migrant Rapists.”

The lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court in Twin Falls last month, said that link had received more than 22,000 views as of April 21 and the tweet pushing it had more 147 retweets.

Chobani said in its lawsuit that Jones’ statements “have caused and continue to cause harm to Idaho residents, including Chobani employees, their families and other members of the Twin Falls community.”

The lawsuit sought damages in excess of $10,000 and a retraction and removal of the posts.

Chobani didn't issue a comment on the settlement and would only say the matter has been resolved.