Editor’s Note: This report is part of “Seeds of Distrust,” an investigative collaboration between Lighthouse Reports, the Arizona Center for Investigative Reporting, the Texas Observer, palabra, and Puente News Collaborative.
Jaeson Jones is trained as a cop—not a journalist. Yet the 51-year-old holds a lucrative correspondent contract at one of the country’s most prominent MAGA-aligned television networks. Jones began his police career as a jailer in Hays County, south of Austin, before becoming a narcotics agent and later a captain in the intelligence and counterterrorism unit in the Texas Department of Public Safety (DPS). After a nearly 30-year career, he retired in 2016. Then, alongside an increasing number of former police and federal agents, Jones sought stardom as a right-wing influencer while cultivating ties with Donald Trump.
