Conspiracy theorist Alex Jones was ordered to pay $965 million in damages to eight families he tormented after the 2012 Sandy Hook Elementary School massacre in which 20 children and six educators were killed. After the tragedy, Jones had immediately called the mass shooting "staged," and later a "hoax," leading to years of harassment and threats to the grieving families by his unstable fans. And of course the contemptible InfoWars host made a show of it today as he watched the verdict from his studio, claiming he was broke.
"Ain't gonna happen, got no money," he said (first video below). "Now remember, I'm in bankruptcy, we've got two years of appeals, the money you donate does not go to these people, it goes to fight this fraud," he shamelessly continued, begging his audience for donations.
In another clip (video below), the sociopath mocked the verdict with an Oprah reference: "Fifty-seven million! Twenty million! 50 million! 80 million! 100 million! Blah, blah. You get a million, you get 100 million! You get the 50 million!"
From The Washington Post:
Wednesday's verdict marks the largest award to date in a multi-pronged legal battle by the families to hold Jones responsible for circulating falsehoods about the 2012 mass shooting where 20 children and six educators were killed in an elementary school in Newtown, Conn.
Within hours of theshooting, Jones was telling his audience that it was staged as a pretext for confiscating guns. Within days, he began to suggest that grieving parents were actors. In the years that followed, he repeatedly said the massacre was faked.
The size of the punitive award is considered a sign that jurors found a defendant's conduct particularly reprehensible and harmful – and as a way of deterring future wrongdoing.
The Connecticut case is one of three defamation suits filed against Jones by relatives of the victims, who have said that they hope to prevent other families from enduring similar abuse.
And from Mediate:
The decision marks yet another court victory for the families of Sandy Hook victims tormented for years by conspiracy theories about the massacre in which a gunman killed 2o children and eight others. Jones, the founder of Infowars, led the charge on those conspiracy theories, repeatedly claiming the massacre was a "staged" government hoax and that the children killed were "actors." …
The decision comes after Jones was ordered by a Texas jury to pay nearly $50 million to the parents of Jesse Lewis, a six-year-old boy murdered in the shooting.
Jones is facing three lawsuits from Sandy Hook families. There remains one more in Austin, Texas.
