A jury in Connecticut concluded on Wednesday that conspiracy theorist Alex Jones must pay $965 million to those who were harmed by his false assertion that the tragedy at Sandy Hook Elementary School was a fabrication.
The ruling is the second significant judgment against the Infowars host stemming from his steadfast support of the myths that the 2012 massacre never occurred and that the distraught relatives shown in news reports were paid actors in a scheme to confiscate firearms.
It was revealed in a lawsuit brought by the families of an FBI agent who was among the first responders at the scene, five children, three educators, and one other person murdered in the horrific shooting. The parents of another murdered kid received a nearly $50 million verdict from a Texas jury in August.
Following the reading of the judgement, some plaintiffs hugged in the courtroom. Jones wasn’t present, but on his Infowars program, split-screen live video from the court was broadcast.
Hey, people, hold off on buying enormous houses, he said.
MORE – Alex Jones reacts to the verdict: "They want to scare everybody away from freedom… We're not scared, and we're not going away, and we're not going to stop."pic.twitter.com/pgcVM3OhnN
— Disclose.tv (@disclosetv) October 12, 2022
The trial featured emotional evidence from the victims’ parents and siblings, who described how they had endured years of harassment and threats from those who had bought into the lies Jones had spread.
They were being recorded at their residences by strangers. On social media, insulting comments were made. The murdered Sandy Hook school administrator Dawn Hochsprung’s daughter, Erica Lafferty, said that she received rape threats in the mail. The burial of Mark Barden’s son Daniel, age 7, was urinated on by conspiracy theorists, who also threatened to remove the coffin, according to Mark Barden.
Jones admitted during testimony that he had been mistaken about Sandy Hook. He asserted that the shooting was genuine. He was, however, obstinate both in the courtroom and on his program.
He criticized the judge, referred to the plaintiffs’ attorney as an ambulance chaser, and referred to the proceedings as a “kangaroo court,” calling the lawsuit an infringement on the right to free expression. He asserted that there was an effort to silence him and destroy his business by Democrats and the media.
During his testimony, he remarked, “I’ve already said ‘I’m sorry,’ hundreds of times, and I’m done saying I’m sorry.”
The incident on December 14, 2012 resulted in the deaths of 20 children and 6 adults. A courthouse in Waterbury, which is around 20 miles from Newtown, the scene of the assault, hosted the slander trial.
The complaint claimed that Jones and Free Speech Systems, the parent business of Infowars, utilized the mass murder to increase their viewership and generate millions of dollars. Experts testified that Jones’ audience and revenue from product sales increased when he made Sandy Hook a theme on the broadcast.
Jones disobeyed court rules regarding the exchange of evidence, including failing to turn over records that might have revealed whether Infowars had intentionally profited from disseminating false information about mass killings, and judges in both the Texas lawsuit and the one in Connecticut found the company liable for damages by default.
Jones was unable to speak on other subjects, such as free speech rights, because he had already been held guilty.
“InfoWars owes Sandy Hook victims $1 billion!”
Alex Jones: pic.twitter.com/2SU7viEFcA
— Josiah Johnson (@KingJosiah54) October 12, 2022
In a lawsuit brought by the parents of a different kid slain in the incident, Jones will now stand trial for a third time in Texas before the end of the year.
How much of the judgments Jones can afford to pay is unknown. He provided testimony during the Texas trial that he was unable to pay any judgment above $2 million. A bankruptcy petition has been made by Free Speech Systems. However, an economist said that Jones and his business were worth up to $270 million during the Texas trial.
