Alex Jones on Thursday released secretly taped audio of his interview with Megyn Kelly three days before the official airing was supposed to occur on NBC.
Jones, a conspiracy theorist and Infowars founder, offered a preview of what was going to be released in a two-minute, 20-second video clip that appears to include off-the-record conversation with the former Fox News host in Kelly. The interview is set to air Sunday.
"I've never done this in 22 years. I've never recorded another journalist," Jones said in a Twitter video. "I've never done this, but I knew that it was a fraud, that it was a lie."
"It's not going to be some 'gotcha' hit piece, I can promise you that," Kelly is heard saying to Jones.
"What are they going to do, when I've got the tapes of what really happened?" Jones said after playing other snippets clips of Kelly, adding she was "obsessed with him."
The controversy comes as Sandy Hook families threaten legal action against NBC News and its president on Thursday.
“Airing Ms. Kelly’s interview implicitly endorses the notion that Mr. Jones’ lies are actually ‘claims’ that are worthy of serious debate, and in doing so it exponentially enhances the suffering and distress of our clients,” said a letter obtained by the Los Angeles Times from Koskoff, Koskoff & Bieder.
The letter was sent to NBC News Chairman Andy Lack and other executives at the network, according to the paper.
CNN President Jeff Zucker also weighed in on his former network's decision to interview Jones and took issue with NBC's promotion and marketing of the interview.
"I think the issue here is the way that they have thus far presented it has not led to the belief that he's held to account as much as somebody who spews such hatred and nonsense needs to be," Zucker, the former head of NBCUniversal, said. "If you're going to do this story, the tease needs to be you holding up a picture of the dead kids at Sandy Hook and saying, 'How dare you?' And I think their marketing of this has thus far been unfortunate."
The Hill has reached out to NBC for comment.