Facebook/Getty Chris Mattei and Alex Jones.
Chris Mattei is a 41-year-old lawyer and former Assistant United States Attorney for the District of Connecticut. He’s currently representing the families of the Sandy Hook victims who are suing InfoWars owner and internet provocateur Alex Jones for defamation. Alex Jones previously implied that the 2012 Sandy Hook Massacre, which left 20 children dead, was a “giant hoax” and “completely fake.”
According to the lawsuit, Jones’ comments led to a campaign of “physical confrontation and harassment, death threats, and a sustained barrage of harassment and verbal assault on social media” against the families of Sandy Hook victims. InfoWars followers allegedly asked the victims families for death certificates or photos of their children to prove they were killed. Several families had to move to escape the constant abuse.
The case took a weird turn this week when Alex Jones claimed he was the victim of a malware attack that planted child pornography on InfoWars servers. This led to a 5-minute profanity-laden tirade from Jones on his show where he singled out Chris Mattei as the person responsible for the supposed attack.
Alex Jones offers $1 million reward after alleged malware attack that he says planted child porn on his servers
“We all know who did it,” Jones said. He then offered money to anybody who could find the person that planted the images. “You’re trying to set me up with child porn, I’m going to get your a**. One million dollars, one million dollars you little gang member. One million dollars to put your head on a pike. One million dollars, b*tch. I am going to get your a**,” Jones screamed. “You’re not going to ever defeat Texas you sacks of sh*t.”
As part of the discovery process, Jones was required to submit email metadata from InfoWars servers to the court. A motion filed on Monday by Mattei’s law firm, Koskoff, Koskoff and Bieder, describes how Jones’ team emailed a batch of metadata files that contained child pornography. Mattei’s team “identified an image that appeared to be child pornography” which is a “serious federal crime” then notified the FBI who is currently conducting an investigation into the matter. The firm also alleges that Jones threatened Mattei several times in an InfoWars video ranting about the child porn issue.
You can read the full motion filed by Mattei’s law firm below:
Jones’ attorney, Norm Pattis, told The Connecticut Post that his client was not threatening Mattei, “Mr. Jones was upset, he did not threaten Mr. Mattei. He spoke in a compassionate fashion.”
Here’s what you need to know:
1. Chris Mattei Has Been Involved in Several High Profile Cases
Chris Mattei is no stranger to handling high profile cases. He made a name for himself as Assistant United States Attorney for the District of Connecticut and specialized in corruption. Mattei served as a federal prosecutor from 2007 to 2015.
His most famous case came when he prosecuted three-term Connecticut Governor John G. Rowland for conspiracy and several other charges stemming from Rowland’s two federal election campaigns. Rowland was eventually found guilty of 7 charges including obstructing justice, conspiracy, falsifying documents relied on by federal regulators and other violations of campaign finance laws. He was sentenced to 30 months in Federal prison.
He led the conviction of Robert Braddock Jr., who was accused of conspiring to violate campaign finance laws through disguising the source of $30,000 in contributions made to Donovan’s campaign. Braddock was found guilty and sentenced to 38 months in Federal prison.
He also led the prosecution of Geroge Gallo, former Connecticut Republican State Party Chairman and Chief of Staff for the Connecticut House of Representatives. Gallo was accused and eventually convicted of Federal mail fraud and receiving $117,000 in kickbacks from a Florida direct mail and printing company for sending Republican legislative candidates to their business. Gallo received a year in prison.
2. He Almost Ran for Governor of Connecticut
In April 2017, Chris Mattei announced via a YouTube video that he was running for Governor of Connecticut. He was the third Democrat to announce his candidacy and was planning to run on a platform of anti-corruption based on his record of prosecuting and convicting corrupt government officials.
Mattei switched to running for Attorney General and was hit with an elections complaint from Timothy J. Sullivan, an organizer for the carpenters union, who wrote in his complaint ““Accordingly, the Mattei for CT committee, and candidate Chris Mattei, seem to be campaigning illegally, and have been doing so since late July. I would like SEEC to investigate.”
Mattei raised $222,000 through his exploratory committee and later rolled over the money to his Attorney General campaign. Mattei claimed the complaint was politically motivated and was never prosecuted or charged with any crimes.
3. Mattei Ran for Attorney General & Lost in the Democratic Primary
After he explored a run for Connecticut Governor and decided not to run, Mattei did run for Attorney General of Connecticut. He ran as a Democrat and lost the primary to William Tong who received 119,574 votes to Mattei’s 53,822. Tong went on to win the election, beating Republican Susan Hatfield by a margin of 82,000 votes.
Mattei continues to post on his campaign pages and is expected to run for office again in the future.
4. He Said the Mueller Report Was a ‘Strong Case for Corruption’ & Thought Paul Manafort Should Have Received a Harsher Sentence
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Chris Mattei was an outspoken critic when it came to the handling of the Mueller Report and Manafort trial. When asked about the evidence laid out in the Mueller report by NBC Connecticut, Mattei replied, “Let me put it this way, I’ve prosecuted obstruction cases on far less evidence than is contained in the Mueller report.”
Following the Paul Manafort sentencing, Mattei started a thread on Twitter that criticized the sentence. “As a former federal prosecutor, what bothers me most about this sentence is not that it fails to account for the appalling nature of Manafort’s conduct, though it clearly does.” he wrote, “I prosecuted people whose crimes were less serious than Manafort’s crimes. People who were less culpable and brazen than Manafort. People who showed remorse and made efforts to reform themselves after their arrest. And, yet, were sentenced to more time in jail than Manafort.”
5. Mattei Is a Father to 3 Boys & Works for the Koskoff, Koskoff & Bieder Law Firm
Chris Mattei and his wife.
Christopher Mattei has three children with his wife Joy Anderson Mattei. They currently live in Hartford, Connecticut. After leaving the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Connecticut in 2015, he took a job with the private law firm of Koskoff, Koskoff and Bieder, one of the most well-known firms in Connecticut.
Mattei was previously an attorney for one year at Shipman & Goodwin in Hartford after serving as a law clerk for U.S. District Judge Alvin W. Thompson in Connecticut federal court. He earned his degree from UConn Law School in 2005 and completed his undergraduate studies at Georgetown University.
Mattei tweeted about the Alex Jones case, after he and his colleagues won a legal victory forcing Jones and InfoWars to turn over internal marketing and financial documents, “This is just the beginning. Proud to represent these families and first responders with my colleagues. We will put Alex Jones under oath.”