Is this the end for one of conservative crazies’ favorite, foul conspiracy theorists? I’ve never prayed on anybody’s downfall, but if the latest judgment against Alex Jones spells doom for his Infowars talk and streaming platform, sleep won’t be lost.
Jones, whose attorneys argued that a multimillion-dollar judgment against him in the defamation lawsuit filed by the parents of slain children from the Sandy Hook massacre in 2012 would put him out of business, was just ordered by a jury in Texas to pay another $45.2 million in punitive damages for spreading the lie that the mass shooting, which killed 20 first-graders and several teachers, was a hoax. That brings the total Jones owes to $49.3 million after the jury awarded the parents $4.1 million in actual damages in the case.
The New York Times reports that should just about do it for Jones and InfoWars.
Worth bearing in mind: This is the first of three trials for damages against Mr. Jones. Two more are scheduled for next month — one in Texas, and one brought by the families of eight victims in Connecticut, where laws governing damages favor the plaintiffs more than in Texas. And of course, Connecticut is where the shooting occurred...
The jury announced both awards after several dramatic days in court that included testimony that Mr. Jones and Free Speech Systems, the parent company of his misinformation-peddling media outlet, Infowars, were worth between $135 million and $270 million.
For context, the more than $49 million in total damages Jones has been ordered to pay is roughly 75 percent of the nearly $65 million Infowars had in revenue last year.
With Jones’ legal woes over the abuse of Sandy Hook victims mounting, he might still have to face the ongoing House Select Committee investigation into the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection at the Capitol. The committee has wanted access to texts for months to find out whether he used his platform to help coordinate the attack on the Capitol. It was revealed in court this week that all of Jones’ text messages for the past two years had been accidentally sent by his his lawyers to the attorneys for the plaintiffs. That attorney says he plans to turn all that information over to the committee.