The conspiracy theorist Alex Jones should pay $965 million to people who suffered from his false claim that the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting was a hoax, a jury in Connecticut decided Wednesday.
The verdict is the second big judgment against the Infowars host over his relentless promotion of the lie that the 2012 massacre never happened, and that the grieving families seen in news coverage were actors hired as part of a plot to take away people’s guns.
It came in a lawsuit filed by the relatives of five children and three educators killed in the mass shooting, plus an FBI agent who was among the first responders to the scene. A Texas jury in August awarded nearly $50 million to the parents of another slain child.
The Connecticut trial featured tearful testimony from parents and siblings of the victims, who told about how they were threatened and harassed for years by people who believed the lies told on Jones’ show.
Strangers showed up at their homes to record them. People hurled abusive comments on social media. Erica Lafferty, the daughter of slain Sandy Hook principal Dawn Hochsprung, testified that people mailed rape threats to her house. Mark Barden told of how conspiracy theorists had urinated on the grave of his 7-year-old son, Daniel, and threatened to dig up the coffin.
Testifying during the trial, Jones acknowledged he had been wrong about Sandy Hook. The shooting was real, he said. But both in the courtroom and on his show, he was defiant.
He called the proceedings a “kangaroo court,” mocked the judge, called the plaintiffs’ lawyer an ambulance chaser and labeled the case an affront to free speech rights. He claimed it was a conspiracy by Democrats and the media to silence him and put him out of business.
“I’ve already said ‘I’m sorry’ hundreds of times and I’m done saying I’m sorry,” he said during his testimony.
Twenty children and six adults died in the shooting on Dec. 14, 2012. The defamation trial was held at a courthouse in Waterbury, about 20 miles (32 kilometers) from Newtown, where the attack took place.
The lawsuit accused Jones and Infowars’ parent company, Free Speech Systems, of using the mass killing to build his audience and make millions of dollars. Experts testified that Jones’ audience swelled when he made Sandy Hook a topic on the show, as did his revenue from product sales.
In both the Texas lawsuit and the one in Connecticut, judges found the company liable for damages by default after Jones failed to cooperate with court rules on sharing evidence, including failing to turn over records that might have showed whether Infowars had profited from knowingly spreading misinformation about mass killings.
Because he was already found liable, Jones was barred from mentioning free speech rights and other topics during his testimony.
Jones now faces a third trial, in Texas around the end of the year, in a lawsuit filed by the parents of another child killed in the shooting.
It is unclear how much of the verdicts Jones can afford to pay. During the trial in Texas, he testified he couldn’t afford any judgment over $2 million. Free Speech Systems has filed for bankruptcy protection. But an economist testified in the Texas proceeding that Jones and his company were worth as much as $270 million.
https://www.cnbc.com/2022/10/12/alex-jones-ordered-to-pay-965-million-for-sandy-hook-lies-.html
wow.
it is a hoax.
glad nobody is going to threaten rape because I said that.
Absolutely right, dude.
Jones is one of them and his fat f-king ass will be tried, convicted, and sent down the shit chute right along with the rest of them.
It was a hoax.
It was a hoax.
It was a hoax.
It was a HOAX!!!
A HOAX HOAX HOAX!!!!
its also a show , because he’s not going to pay a freakin dime, its all bullshit even this mock trial , its all to sell the narrative that this psyop was real
and tons are buying right into it , just like good ol sheeple
the tyrants and traitors are not going to give up their “mass murder by way of gun” psyops , because its filing their order of infringements by the fear driven among us , same shitty game with the jab
cant wait to see them all swing
oh oh oh, i need to add this in here ..
if AJ is going to have to pay for being a fken liar , what about all the celebrities and heads of state over the Covid lies ? the Jab lies etc? how bout them each get a 900 million dollar tab for their shitty lies , when is their court dates
So true, and I’ll add that I think the whole thing was intended to scare those who speak against the “official narrative.” To shut us down and threaten us with ruin if we dare to challenge their deceptions and evil deeds. And Deep State Alex is playing along. Maybe this will be turned into a movie and he can grant script rights to the “Arabs who run Hollywood.” Then they’ll give him all his money back. False money. Play money. Get-Out-Of-Jail-Free money.
A public figure who was genuinely for justice would, at a moment with such a big spotlight on him, cite Article 1 and its free speech clause, which includes the right to one’s own opinions. But Alex would never do that, because he would be exposing the solution to all our woes; he would be calling attention to that which they fiercely ignore and hide: our Bill of Rights. Over many years, Alex never took the ball all the way down the field. In fact, he set it back over and over again. Gate-keeper is too soft a term for traitor. Ninth Circle, for sure.
.