Alex Jones has been ordered to pay an additional $473 million in punitive damages to the families of Sandy Hook victims.
via People:
According to the Associated Press, CNN, and The New York Times, this brings the total judgment against Jones and his company Free Speech Systems to a whopping $1.44 billion.
For years, Jones told his millions of followers that the Dec. 14, 2012, shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn., where 20 children and six adults were fatally shot, was a “false flag” operation staged by crisis actors posing as grieving parents to strengthen gun control laws.
“The record clearly supports the plaintiffs’ argument that the defendants’ conduct was intentional and malicious, and certain to cause harm by virtue of their infrastructure, ability to spread content, and massive audience including the infowarriors,” Connecticut Judge Barbara Bellis wrote in the 45-page ruling, obtained by the AP.
“The record also establishes that the defendants repeated the conduct and attacks on the plaintiffs for nearly a decade, including during the trial, wanton, malicious, and heinous conduct that caused harm to the plaintiffs,” Bellis wrote, according to CNN. “This depravity, and cruel, persistent course of conduct by the defendants establishes the highest degree of reprehensibility and blameworthiness.”
In response to the ruling, Christopher Mattei, a lawyer for the Sandy Hook families, told the Times, “Our hope is that this serves to reinforce the message of this case: Those who profit from lies targeting the innocent will face justice.”
According to the AP, Jones’ lawyer says he plans to appeal the decision.
“To paraphrase Karl Marx, the verdict was tragedy, this latest ruling is farce. It makes our work on appeal that much easier,” Norm Pattis told the outlet.
According to the Times, Judge Bellis issued an order to freeze Jones’ assets, to prevent him from moving them outside of the United States, “until further order of the court.”
The outlet previously reported Jones’ company filed for bankruptcy earlier this year. Sandy Hook families have accused him of doing so in an effort to avoid the massive payout.
In October, a jury ordered Jones to pay $965 million to eight families who lost loved ones in the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting, as well as an FBI agent who was at the scene, for repeatedly lying that the massacre was a hoax.
He’s broke.
