Alex Jones must pay $965 million over hoax claims
October 12, 2022
Alex Jones on Wednesday was ordered to pay $965 million (roughly €995 million) to the families of eight victims from the 2012 Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting after he spent years falsely describing the massacre as a hoax, a jury in Connecticut ruled Wednesday.
Conspiracy theorist Jones falsely claimed the families were actors who faked the tragedy, the jury said. It marks the second multimillion-dollar verdict against the Infowars host in just over two months.
The ruling comes after a lawsuit was filed by the families of five children and three educators killed in the massacre. An FBI agent, who was among the first responders at the scene, joined the families in filing the suit against Jones and was awarded $90 million in damages.
In August, Jones was ordered to pay $45.2 million in punitive damages to the parents of a 6-year-old boy killed in the Sandy Hook massacre.
'I'm done saying sorry' Jones said in testimony
Wednesday's decision came after three weeks of testimony in a state court in Waterbury, about 20 miles (32 kilometers) from Newtown, where a gunman killed 20 children and six members of staff at Sandy Hook Elementary School in December 2012. Jones claimed that the massacre was staged as part of a government plot to take away guns from American citizens.
"I've already said 'I'm sorry' hundreds of times and I'm done saying I'm sorry,'' Jones said as part of his testimony.
Unclear whether Jones can pay
Later this year, Jones is set to face a third trial after a lawsuit was filed by the parents of another child killed in the shooting.
It is unclear just how much of the damages from the two trials conducted so far Jones is able to pay.
During the trial in August, he testified he couldn't afford any judgment to pay more than $2 million.
Alt-right radio show and website InfoWars is owned by Jones and was founded in 1999. Its parent company is called Free Speech Systems, and in April this year it filed for bankruptcy. But an economist testified in the Texas trial that Jones and his company were worth as much as $270 million.
jsi/msh (AP, Reuters, AFP)