In the past, Noah Pozner, one of the 20 children killed in the 2012 shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn., was referred to by Jones as Leonard Pozner's and Veronique De La Rosa's "supposed son" or a child who "reportedly" died, Bankston said.

"Compelling Mr. Jones to admit in a legal pleading that Plaintiffs' son truly died was an important step towards safety and justice for this family," Bankston wrote. "But it is not the last."

It is one of five defamation lawsuits against Jones now working their way through the courts — three brought by Bankston in Jones' home turf of Austin— that collectively threaten Jones' long and enormously lucrative run as the nation's premier conspiracy theorist, a formerly outsider role that has made Jones, in this topsy-turvy political moment, one of President Donald Trump's most influential media allies and defenders.