Famed radio talk show host Alex Jones on Wednesday was ordered by a Connecticut jury to pay an astronomical $965 million in damages to Sandy Hook families and an FBI agent for calling the mass shooting a "hoax" a decade ago.
JUST IN - Jury rules Infowars' Alex Jones must pay more than $900 million in damages to Sandy Hook families.
MORE - Alex Jones reacts to the verdict: "They want to scare everybody away from freedom... We're not scared, and we're not going away, and we're not going to stop."pic.twitter.com/pgcVM3OhnN
Just as in the first trial, the judge sidestepped the First Amendment and declared Jones guilty before the jury trial by claiming he failed to comply with discovery. The jury was only allowed to decide how much damages Jones owes, not whether his speech was protected by the First Amendment.
It's important to note that these lawsuits were not filed in 2012, 2013, or 2014, but in 2018 -- because special interest groups saw this as an opportunity to take down Jones for helping Trump win the presidency in 2016.
If Hillary Clinton had won, none of this would be happening.
Controversial radio host Alex Jones has been ordered by a Connecticut jury to pay $965 million in damages to the families of Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting victims for suggesting that the December 2012 massacre was staged.
The six-member Connecticut Superior Court jury announced its verdict on Wednesday after three days of deliberations. The payouts were ordered to the families of eight children who were killed in the shooting, as well as to an emergency worker who claimed he was defamed. The largest damage award was to one of the parents, Robbie Parker, whom Jones was ordered to pay $60 million for defamation and $60 million for emotional distress.
Jones, founder of Infowars, accused Parker of being a crisis actor after he was shown on video briefly smiling at a press conference before speaking about the death of his 6-year-old daughter. He and other family members of the deceased children testified that they had been harassed and threatened by Infowars listeners because of the claims that Jones made. For instance, Mark and Jackie Barden said people urinated on their son’s grave and threatened to dig it up to prove that he wasn’t killed.
The shooting left 20 children and six teachers dead. The Connecticut case is one of four defamation lawsuits that were filed against Jones by Sandy Hook families. In August, a Texas jury ordered him to pay $49 million in damages to the parents of another one of the shooting victims.
Jones, who didn’t attend court for Wednesday’s verdict announcement, testified last month that he “legitimately thought” the shooting might have been staged but had later concluded that it was real. As a lawyer for the plaintiffs scolded him for failing to show respect to the victims’ families, he said, “Is this a struggle session? Are we in China? I’ve already said I’m sorry hundreds of times, and I’m done saying I’m sorry.”
Jones said on his radio show Wednesday that he will appeal the verdict and that his company’s bankruptcy filing will protect Infowars while the case is still pending. He has portrayed the lawsuits against him as an attack on the constitutional right to free speech.
Jones reacted to the verdict live on air:
Former Biden press secretary Jen Psaki celebrated the verdict on Twitter, claiming "the end of infowars would be a public service."
The damage Alex Jones has done to the lives of these families is horrific—nearly a billion dollars doesn’t solve their pain-but also true that the end of infowars would be a public service
Jones received a huge amount of support on social media.
Just a $1,000,000,000 award in damages against Alex Jones after a Kafka-esque show trial. If this doesn’t get overturned on appeal, there is no hope left for the so-called “justice” system.
For comparison, Union Carbide only had to pay half of this amount for causing an environmental disaster that killed over 15,000 people. https://t.co/WcfghLgONK
Reminder: Not a single person who lied to get America into Iraq paid a cent for their deception. "Lying" only costs you a billion dollars when you're the enemy of the people responsible for debacles like Iraq
Alex jones lying and Pfizer lying both trending . One with penalty other without. If you have no critical thinking faculty, this is about as crazy as we should get before a nuclear war wipe out the human race. pic.twitter.com/li0yz5qHvj
If Jones were to pay these judgements in full, he'd be on the hook for over $1 billion already and still has one more Sandy Hook trial to go in Austin. He's not going to pay out anywhere near that because he doesn't have the money and his company, Free Speech Systems, has already filed for bankruptcy.
Victim's rights attorney Lisa Bloom told Newsweek that she was "delighted" about the "enormous verdict against Alex Jones," while cautioning that collecting the money from him could be "very difficult."
"It is very difficult to collect on judgments, especially against individuals like this who often hide their assets behind shell corporations," Bloom said. "I've been trying to collect on a large judgment against another odious wealthy man for several years. It is expensive, time-consuming and frustrating."
"In addition, Jones may declare bankruptcy," she continued. "In our system, sadly, many defendants like Jones cleverly avoid payment for years or forever."
Free Speech Systems has already filed for bankruptcy. While Jones may also attempt to declare personal bankruptcy, he will not be able to avoid paying the judgment entirely since bankruptcies do not discharge debts from punitive judgements. However, $965 million awarded on Wednesday was entirely for compensatory damages, which could potentially be discharged.
Still, punitive damages have yet to be decided in Connecticut and are likely to be significant. In the Texas trial, Jones was ordered to pay $4 million in compensatory damages and $45.2 million in punitive damages, although the damages could be reduced due to state limits.
[...] Los Angeles entertainment attorney Tre Lovell said in a statement obtained by Newsweek that "not all outcomes look bleak for Jones."
"If he has the judgment discharged in bankruptcy, but uses the trial publicity to gin up his base and increase his fundraising, he could build back his coffers without the financial burden of a judgment looming over his head," Lovell said.
Immediately following Wednesday's verdict, Jones did appeal to his Infowars audience for donations. He said that collecting the $1 billion "ain't gonna be happening" for the families of the victims, claiming that he has "no money," and pledging that any money donated would "not go to these people."
Jones is taking the punches as best as he can. As long as he keeps fighting, he will be able to survive and keep giving the globalists hell.