He admitted to Daily Mail that the InfoWars office environment can often be like that of a locker room.

Jones Sr. said the company is made up of, quote, equal opportunity offenders, adding, quote, we're a very yeasty environment and we give everybody crap.

Two former employees recall that after an employee left the company, Jones would call a staff meeting, pull up YouTube videos of their work, and take turns making fun of them. Quote, the unsaid implication, a former employee said, was that if you leave, this will happen to you. Quote, Jones rewards the people who buy in all the way, one former employee said. But there's an expectation not to contradict him or the message.

And that kind of environment is hostile, that's abusive, and that quote, the idea that the implication is that when you leave, we will do this to you, keeps people in line. That's cult behavior.