A Texas jury ordered Alex Jones, founder of fringe media outlet Infowars, to pay $4.1 million to the parents of a 6-year-old who was murdered in the 2012 mass shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School after he had denied that the shooting was real and accused the child’s parents of participating in a government hoax. There are millions more possible in defamation damages.
Jones had claimed the Sandy Hook shooting — in which 20 children and six adults were killed — was a “giant hoax”Submitted by “crisis actors,”That and more “no one died”In the massacre. He was sued for defamation by the child’s parents, Neil Heslin and Scarlett Lewis, after he accused them of being part of a government “false flag”Operation to fake Newtown’s shooting to stir public opinion for gun control
The parents were awarded $4.1 million in compensatory damages. On Friday, the Texas jury will decide punitive damages. Jones faces two other cases in Texas in which he is being sued by the parents of Sandy Hook victims. He was awarded $4.1 million in compensatory damages last year.
Mark Bankston, an attorney representing the parents, stated in a statement that his clients were happy. “are thrilled with the result and look forward to putting Mr. Jones’ money to good use. Mr. Jones on the other hand will not sleep easy tonight. With punitive damages still to be decided and multiple additional defamation lawsuits pending, it is clear that Mr Jones’ time on the American stage is finally coming to an end.”
Jones then called Jones the “The Decision” “a major victory for truth,”A video was posted Thursday to Infowars. That’s because, according to the far-right figure, the damages amount the jury awarded was far less than the $150 million that the couple had sought. “They thought they would shut us down. But that jury understood the truth and resisted the propaganda,”Jones said. He also urged his followers to buy products — like T-shirts, books and dietary supplements — from his website, claiming his company needs financial support to keep operating because “we are so broke.”
Last week, Free Speech Systems filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, revealing that Infowars’ owners have taken out more than $62 million from the business. Jones and Infowars’ parent company, Free Speech Systems, have spent More than $15 Million in legal fees and costs related to the Sandy Hook lawsuitsAccording to court documents, the date is current.
During the Texas trial, Jones’ lawyers had accidentally sent his mobile phone records — which Jones had denied existed — to Bankston, the family’s legal counsel. (The judge in the case denied the request by Jones’ attorneys to declare a mistrial over their error.) Bankston said later that the Jan. 6 House select committee investigating the pro-Trump attack on the U.S. Capitol had requested Jones’ phone records and that he was prepared to turn them over.
Jones, 48 is “almost certainly the most prolific conspiracy theorist in contemporary America,”According toThe Southern Poverty Law Center. YouTube, Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and Facebook banned Jones from their platforms in 2018, citing Jones’s violation of hate speech policies.
Jones lies about Sandy Hook and denies that Trump lost the 2020 election. He stated in December that year. “We will never back down to the Satanic pedophile, globalist New World Order and their walking-dead reanimated corpse Joe Biden, and we will never recognize him.”He also accused America’s government of being behind the attacks on 9/11. “leftist Jews”Want to create conflict “dress[ing] up as Nazis”Falsely stated President Obama “is al-Qaeda.”