Sandy Hook Families Seek $2.75 Trillion From Alex Jones

Sandy Hook families asked a Connecticut judge to order Alex Jones to pay $2.75 trillion in damages in addition to the almost $1 billion a jury awarded for defamation.

Jones broke a state law prohibiting the sale of products with false statements, according to the families. In order to reach the sum, they used the amount of social media exposure Jones received in the three years following the school shooting to add up the state law's $5,000 per violation fine.

Jones said family members were crisis actors for a long time. He didn't think his statements were libelous.

Lawyers for the families said that Alex Jones perpetrates the attack for greed. They are too valuable to Alex Jones to be treated like real people.

Jones' final amount will be determined by Barbara Bellis, a state judge. During shows that featured his false claims about Sandy Hook, Jones sold supplements and survival gear.

The host of the show has promised not to pay the families a dime. A jury in Connecticut awarded $965 million to eight families and an FBI agent who responded to the shooting after they were harassed by fans of conspiracy theorist Alex Jones.

After Bellis ruled that Jones had defamed the families, the jurors were asked to calculate defamation and emotional distress damages. Jones was found to be responsible by default because he refused to provide testimony and documents.

CUT PA is used to compensate people who have been harmed by deceptive products. Sandy Hooks parents brought a case against the maker of the rifle used in the shooting and the Connecticut Supreme Court decided that they could be awarded CUTPA damages.

In a separate filing Friday, Jones's lawyer said that the damages don't fit the facts of the case. He said the judge's duty was to give Jones a fair trial by entering the default judgment and restrictions against him.

The victims' lawyers should have had to show jurors the amount of damages they were entitled to, rather than just argue that damages should be large enough to stop Jones. The harassment each victim suffered to Jones was not tied to the lawyers.

The jury's verdict was set aside and a new trial ordered because the plaintiffs focused on "arousing sympathy, directing anger, and anchoring a large number before the jury with the hope that they would do what they did in this case."

Jones claimed that the judge's restrictions on what he could tell the jury violated his free speech rights. Bellis did not allow Jones to testify about his political beliefs, conspiracy theories, gun control or First Amendment issues.

The parent company of Infowars, Free Speech Systems, was put into creditor protection in Houston federal bankruptcy court this year after a jury in Texas awarded a family almost $50 million in defamation damages. The conspiracy theorist is going to be sued by the Sandy Hook family in Texas.

One of Jones's employees testified that his companies made between $150 million and $1 billion after Sandy Hook.

The talk show host thinks Bellis's default judgment and restrictions on Jones's testimony prevented him from presenting his political beliefs and free-speech arguments.

Jones boycotted the trial in favor of spouting his conspiracy theories and first-amendment arguments to reporters outside the courthouse.

There is a case in the Connecticut Superior Court.