Supreme Court rejects Alex Jones' appeal of $1.4 billion defamation judgment in Sandy Hook case

[ad_1] Washington — The Supreme Courtroom on Monday turned away an attraction by conspiracy theorist Alex Jones over a $1.4 billion defamation judgment towards him for his false claims that the 2012 taking pictures at Sandy Hook Elementary Faculty was a hoax.

In rejecting Jones' case, the Supreme Courtroom leaves in place the record-breaking sum he was ordered to pay after he was discovered liable in 2021 for damages in lawsuits introduced by the households of kids who have been killed within the bloodbath. Jones had individually requested the excessive courtroom final week for emergency aid whereas it thought of whether or not to take up his case. Justice Sonia Sotomayor denied Jones' bid to halt the judgment later Monday, seemingly as a result of the Supreme Courtroom denied his attraction.

A six-person Connecticut jury had agreed in 2022 that Jones ought to pay $965 million to the households as compensation for defamation, infliction of emotional misery and violations of a Connecticut legislation. A state courtroom decide added on one other $474 million in punitive damages one month later.

Jones' legal professionals informed the Supreme Courtroom in a submitting that the greater than $1.4 billion "can by no means be paid."

Jones, the founding father of InfoWars, had repeatedly claimed that the 2012 taking pictures that killed 20 college students and 6 academics was staged by "disaster actors" as a part of a plan to enact extra restrictive gun legal guidelines. Kinfolk of the victims and an FBI agent testified in the course of the defamation trial that they have been threatened and harassed by Jones' listeners who believed his lies in regards to the bloodbath.

In a distinct lawsuit introduced in Texas, Jones testified that the taking pictures was "100% actual." Nonetheless, he had slammed the Connecticut trial as a "kangaroo courtroom" and argued it violated his free speech rights.

Jones and Free Speech Programs, his firm, filed for chapter safety after he was ordered to pay the households, and the satirical publication The Onion tried to buy InfoWars at a chapter public sale for an undisclosed value final 12 months. However a chapter decide rejected the sale of InfoWars to The Onion final December. Jones' legal professionals stated there's nonetheless an effort underway for InfoWars to be bought.