A Connecticut jury decided on Wednesday that right-wing conspiracy theorist “MOUTH ALMIGHTY” Alex Jones owes at least $965 million in damages to the families of victims of the 2012 Sandy Hook mass shooting for falsely claiming that they were actors who fabricated the tragedy.
The three-week trial in a state court in Waterbury, Connecticut, resulted in a verdict that was far more than the $49 million that a jury in a similar case brought by two other Sandy Hook parents in August awarded against Jones.
The Infowars website and its parent corporation, Free Speech Systems LLC, are subject to the Connecticut ruling. In July, FSS declared bankruptcy.
Families of the twenty students and six teachers killed in the 2012 shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Connecticut were among the plaintiffs in the case. Jones maintained for a long time that the massacre was manufactured as part of a government conspiracy to disarm the American people.
Attorney fees, which were recommended by the jury and will be assessed in November, will also be granted to the winning side.
Jones announced his intention to appeal the judgement live on air and claimed that the bankruptcy proceedings now underway at his company will serve to shield Infowars in the interim.
We’re up against Goliath, he declared.
The attorney for Jones did not immediately return a call seeking comment.
Outside the trial, family lawyer Christopher Mattei declared, “a verdict for truth and for our common humanity and a verdict against Alex Jones, his lies and their poisonous spread.”
One of the plaintiffs, Robbie Parker, expressed his gratitude to the jury outside the courthouse. Parker testified that “everyone who took the stand stated the truth.” There’s one exception. He who brags that this is what he does. But he was standing here, lying, while the truth was being told in the courtroom.
Default judgment was entered against Jones last year for his failure to follow court orders.
As part of his closing statements last week, Mattei said that Jones had benefited financially for years as a result of spreading false information about the incident.
While it is unknown how much money Infowars has made, witnesses said during a recent trial that the site made $165 million between 2016 and 2018. An economist involved in the Texas lawsuit put Jones’ net worth anywhere between $135 and $270 million.
Mattei said the families were subjected to a decade-long campaign of harassment and death threats by Jones’ followers.
Mattei told the jury, “Alex Jones put his foot right on top of these folks who were drowning in anguish.”
Jones’s attorney argued in rebuttal that the plaintiffs had presented little in the way of evidence of measurable losses. Norman Pattis, the defense counsel, asked the jury to put aside their political beliefs and focus solely on the evidence.
It’s not a political case, Pattis emphasized. “The issue is how much money should be given to the plaintiffs.”
A lawyer and expert on defamation who was not involved in the case named Douglas E. Mirell claimed the large verdict was a message of “revulsion” from the jury.
According to Mirell, Jones is paying the price for “his failure to own up to the mendacity and lies that he peddled time and time again over many years.”
For weeks, the relatives crowded the gallery every day to take turns testifying about how Jones’ lies about Sandy Hook just added to their sorrow. A responding FBI agent also joined the lawsuit as a plaintiff.
Jones, who has admitted that the shooting did take place, also testified, briefly destabilizing the trial as he raved against his “liberal” detractors and refused to apologize to the families.
In a similar case heard in August in Austin, Texas, home of Jones’ Infowars conspiracy theory website, another jury ordered Jones and his organization to pay $49.3 million to Sandy Hook parents.
Jones’ attorneys have stated their desire to have a judge throw out a large portion of the payout in the Texas case because they believe it is excessive.
No damage caps are in effect in Connecticut, but Jones may still be able to appeal the conviction on other grounds.
For “as long as it takes, the families would go to any court necessary to enforce the verdict because that’s what justice requires.”
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ISTHATPORKS TAKE:
Alex Jones, the BIG MOUTH victim claimer, showed everyone with a brain that works what being PORK is all about. All one has to do is watch his actions in any situation and see where it nets him. His actions smack him right in the face. BOOMERANG! Like Trump, no one ever has to lay a glove on them. BE PAIENT. They do themselves in. They knock themselves out. You just have to be wise enough to be a fly on the wall. Watch the shit show from a distance and watch them fail. He is a special kind of PORK. They are a special kind of PORK that talks loud and bold, but behind closed doors is a little mouse. People like that are an automatic daily, walking, living, breathing, PORK AWARD! so when you see them, don't miss a beat, tell them. 😏