Infowars founder and conspiracy peddler Alex Jones was ordered Wednesday to pay upwards of $965 million in fines determined by a jury in his defamation trial over his false claims regarding the Sandy Hook Elementary School mass shooting.
The six-member jury began deliberations in Connecticut court last week to decide how much Jones should pay for spreading false information to his millions of viewers about the 2012 massacre that resulted in 26 fatalities. Attorneys for plaintiffs, which include eight families of deceased shooting victims and an FBI agent, told jurors that Jones had lied about the events of the shooting since the day it happened and used the internet to help disseminate false information about that day.
“The lies that started on December 14, 2012, are continuing to this very day,” plaintiffs’ attorney Christopher Mattei said on Oct. 6. “In two months it will be 10 years, 10 years since these families lost their loved ones and even now, even now, he’s still doing it.”
In the aftermath of the Sandy Hook massacre, in which 20 children and 6 administrators were killed, Jones claimed the shooting was a “hoax” and that the murdered children and their families were “crisis actors.”
In both of the trials against Jones, family members and law enforcement officials have testified to the barrage of harassment they experienced at the hands of InfoWars viewers. Jackie Barden, whose son Daniel was killed in the shooting, testified in Connecticut about receiving letters from people claiming to have urinated on her son’s grave and threatening to dig up his body.
Another victim’s mother, Nicole Hockley, described being sent death threats and photos of dead children, and how the resulting stress led her to sleep with a knife and baseball bat near her bed for fear of an attack. Robbie and Alissa Parker recalled how Jones held a broadcast the day of their daughter’s funeral, accusing them of “staging it” and of reading cue cards at a press conference several days before.
According to Rolling Stone, Jones was combative throughout the trial, forcing the removal of the jury from the courtroom several times and claiming the trial to be little more than “a deep state” situation. “Is this a struggle session?” he exclaimed late last month. “Are we in China? I’ve already said I’m sorry, and I’m done saying I’m sorry.”
The conspiracy theorist’s disparagement of the proceedings continued outside the court, where Jones at one point told reporters that it was “not really a trial” but “a literal kangaroo court.” Jones’ attorney kicked the trial off by claiming his client is the real victim in the case, describing him as a “scapegoat” and “whipping boy.”
