Supreme Court Rejects Alex Jones’ $1.4 Billion Defamation Case Over Sandy Hook Shooting
Topline
The $1.4 billion judgment in opposition to Alex Jones for claiming the Sandy Hook Classic College taking pictures was a “hoax” will stand, because the Supreme Court on Tuesday rebuffed the fair-soar commentator’s ask for the court to soak up the case and overturn the ruling in opposition to him.
Infowars host Alex Jones arrives on the Texas Declare Capital constructing on April 18, 2020 in Austin, Texas.
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Key Information
The Supreme Court declined to soak up Jones’ case, rejecting it for oral arguments Tuesday without commenting at all on their reasoning.
Jones was found chargeable for $1.4 billion in a lawsuit brought in Connecticut by the households of victims within the Sandy Hook Classic College taking pictures, who argued the Infowars host dedicated defamation by spreading fraudulent conspiracy theories alleging the taking pictures was a “hoax.”
The fair-soar commentator requested the Supreme Court to revisit that ruling and re-evaluate the 10-opt judgment in opposition to him, arguing the defamation criticism in opposition to him selectively quoted things he acknowledged about the mass taking pictures and he was no longer given an even chance to defend himself in court.
Jones, who filed for financial catastrophe in 2022 after the judgement in opposition to him had been issued, moreover took impart of affairs with the big sum he owes, arguing it’s a “financial death penalty” that can not be paid.
He moreover requested the Supreme Court to say more broadly that for “media defendants reporting on issues of undeniable public impart of affairs,” courts must no longer be allowed to impart of affairs rulings without a beefy trial, impose liability “for the acts of unrelated third parties,” or enable sanctions in maintaining with those acts.
Jones’ company Infowars has no longer but answered to a ask for comment.
What To Map For
While the Supreme Court’s ruling skill the $1.4 billion Jones owes will stand, the fair-soar opt is individually silent within the strategy of appealing a smaller $49 million judgment in opposition to him, the Linked Press notes. That ruling, which was resolute by a jury in 2022, moreover concerns his comments about the Sandy Hook taking pictures and was brought by fogeys of one in all the victims. A opt previously refused to lower the judgment months after the trial, in November 2022.
Has Alex Jones Paid The Sandy Hook Households Yet?
No. While Jones declared financial catastrophe in maintaining with the court rulings in opposition to him in 2022, a opt dominated the next One year that the judgments in opposition to him can not be discharged in financial catastrophe. Jones’ inner most financial catastrophe was remodeled to a formal liquidation in 2024, which skill that it’ll be up to a trustee to ranking out how the judgments in opposition to him will be paid, and a court then dominated in August of this One year that Infowars’ assets wishes to be turned over to a impart receiver, who will promote them off in explain to pay Jones’ cash owed. Which implies households of the Sandy Hook victims also can quickly initiating receiving their cash following years of delays.
Key Background
Jones, the longtime host of Infowars, has long been known for his controversial fair-soar views, including spreading spurious conspiracy theories. The host gained narrate attention for his comments about the 2012 taking pictures at Sandy Hook Classic College in Newtown, Connecticut, which killed 20 children and six adults. Jones called the taking pictures a “authorities investigation” with “inner job written at some stage in it” on a broadcast of his showcase in 2013, as quoted by Reuters, moreover telling conservative host Megyn Kelly in a 2017 interview that he was playing “devil’s advocate” on the taking pictures. “I are inclined to evaluate that children doubtlessly did die there,” Jones told Kelly on NBC. “But then you definately see at all the replacement proof on the replacement facet.” Households of the Sandy Hook victims went on to sue Jones in 2018, submitting separate complaints in each and each Texas and Connecticut. Courts in each and each states found Jones chargeable for defamation, and juries then sure how great he needed to pay in damages. The jury within the Connecticut case, which is the person that went to the Supreme Court, dominated Jones needed to pay $965 million in compensatory damages to the victims households. Think Barbara Bellis then added an additional $473 million in punitive damages, citing Jones “intentional and malicious” conduct that was “definite to situation off damage.”
Extra Reading
ForbesAlex Jones Needs To Promote His Property To Pay $1.5 Billion Owed To Sandy Hook HouseholdsBy Siladitya RayForbesThink Freezes Alex Jones’ Property As He Faces Over $1 Billion In Damages For Spreading Sandy Hook Conspiracy TheoriesBy Nicholas ReimannForbesAlex Jones’ Infowars Site Files For Chapter — Here Are The Proceedings That Led To Millions In Apt ChargesBy Madeline Halpert
