A jury ordered Alex Jones to pay more than four million dollars to the parents of a child who was killed in the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting. At one point during the trial, Jones and his counsel accidentally sent copies of his phone records to the opposing legal team. One of the first consequences of Jones false claims that the shooting was a staged false flag was the harassment of parents. Jones has made a small amount of money since.
Jesse Lewis was one of the 20 children killed at Sandy Hook and his parents requested $150 million in compensation. The jury will meet again after today's verdict to decide if to award more damages. Since he lost defamation cases in all three of them by default, the jury in each case will be deciding financial penalties.
“We have a plan to stay on air”
Jones says he is undeterred. We have a plan for the future. He said on the video that we can pay for the trials. Jones was banned from major web platforms in the last two years, and he compared it to being in prison. During the trial, Jones claimed that a fine over $2 million wouldsink him, but court evidence showed that his site made $50 million a year even after being deplatformed.
During the trial, Jones hid his money. He was accused of swindling large amounts of money out of FSS to limit his losses after his company declared bankruptcy with a $54 million debt. The trials were put on hold because of the filing.
The difficulty of holding Jones accountable in court is one of the highlights of the trial. Jones was told by the judge that his belief that something is true doesn't make it true. She criticized his lawyer for allowing one of Jones's witnesses to talk to him on the air. Jones was told by Judge Gamble that this was not his show.
Jones eventually conceded Sandy Hook was real
Jones admitted during the trial that the Sandy Hook shooting was real. Jones said that he unintentionally took part in things that hurt the people. "I apologize for that."
Ken White noted before the verdict that the ruling won't diminish the audience for Jones' frequently untrue claims or his ability to make money off them even if he gives up this particular theory. According to White, the people who enjoyed his Sandy Hook trutherism didn't enjoy it because it was convincing or coherent, but because it matched theirs. The law isn't very complex to change. Jones has defamation claims. The benefits of tens of millions of dollars made each year are included in the costs.
The trials will still pose a legal problem for Jones.