Connecticut jury sentences far-right conspiracy side’s founding radio host to record damages
FROM NEW YORK – Alex Jones, founder of Infowars, an organ of the far-right conspiracy, has been sentenced to pay $1 billion in damages to the families of victims of the Sandy Hook elementary school massacre, whom he accused for years of justice actors who were called to play the part of crying parents on the stage of a fake massacre: a fiction constructed by the government in search of an excuse to confiscate the guns of US citizens (then the facts are 2012, President was Barack Obama).
The jury, ruling yesterday in Waterbury, Connecticut, at the end of a three-week trial based on complaints from the families of 8 of the 26 victims of the massacre (20 children and 6 teachers), sentenced Jones to pay $965 million in family damages , who, along with the loss of their children, endured ten years of insults and threats – some even being forced to move – from supporters of Alex Jones’ conspiracy theories.
The $965 million comes in addition to the $48 million in another similar conviction against Jones that was returned a few months ago by a Texas jury deciding a lawsuit filed by the parents of another Sandy Hook victim.
And it’s not over yet, as the Waterbury judge will be able to add another penalty to Punitive Damages. Jones then awaited a third trial, again for the Sandy Hook storyline.
The conspiratorial right-wing radio showman, who realized during the Texas trial that the 2012 massacre was 100% true, has regained his boast in recent weeks: A few days ago he told his listeners that those involved in the massacre Children doubt, do good because I don’t even know what happened that day.
And yesterday after the verdict, which he is set to appeal, he commented: A billion? And why not a thousand? However, I don’t have the money, I will never pay. And his attorney, Norm Pattis, commented: Today is a very grim day for freedom of expression. Wild slander that has little to do with freedom of speech against people already desperate to murder a child. But criminologists agree that never before has there been such a heavy fine for crimes of this nature. The jury probably wanted to send a message to all those who spread untruths and who can be identified and sanctioned.
Certainly, Jones won’t pay these penalties in full: the Texas jury’s will be reduced by the judge because the big Southern state has strict quantitative limits on that type of penalty.
As for yesterday’s verdict, the combined personal fortune of Jones and Free Speech Systems, the company that controls Infowars, is estimated at between $150 million and $270 million.
According to recent research, since complaints first began arriving in 2018, Alex Jones has retired and stashed a whopping $62 million elsewhere, and his company filed for bankruptcy over the summer. The families of the victims apparently saw this as Jones’ ruse to avoid his obligations: They asked the bankruptcy judge (who has agreed to investigate further) not to grant Jones the credit protections that go along with the bankruptcy process. He’s certainly not suffering from financial hardship: on the contrary, he flaunted wealth at the trial by coming to Connecticut on a private jet and renting a large mansion with a swimming pool and tennis court for the duration of the hearings.
October 13, 2022 (Change October 13, 2022 | 10:22)
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