Alex Jones Must Pay $4.1 Million to Sandy Hook Family After Spreading Lies About Gun Massacre, Jury Says
variety.comTodd Spangler NY Digital EditorA Texas jury ordered Alex Jones, founder of fringe media outlet Infowars, to pay $4.1 million to the parents of a 6-year-old who was murdered in the 2012 mass shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School after he had denied that the shooting was real and accused the child’s parents of participating in a government hoax.
He is facing potentially millions more in defamation damages.Jones had claimed the Sandy Hook shooting — in which 20 children and six adults were killed — was a “giant hoax” perpetrated by “crisis actors,” and that “no one died” in the massacre.
He was sued for defamation by the child’s parents, Neil Heslin and Scarlett Lewis, after he accused them of being part of a government “false flag” operation to fake the shooting in Newtown, Conn., supposedly to rouse public opinion in favor of gun control.
In addition to the $4.1 million in compensatory damages awarded to the parents, the Texas jury is set to determine punitive damages on Friday.
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