“The man is a destructive, deceitful and lethal menace,” the head of Media Matters for America said of Jones. “Let these damages crush him under the weight of his own lies.”

A Connecticut jury on Wednesday ordered far-right conspiracy theorist Alex Jones to pay nearly $1 billion to people including relatives of victims of the 2012 Sandy Hook Elementary School massacre, who endured relentless threats and harassment as the Infowars owner repeatedly claimed the shooting was a hoax staged by “crisis actors.”

[pullquote]”There will be more Alex Jones in this world, but what they learned here today is that they absolutely will be held accountable.”[/pullquote]

Jones and Infowars parent company, Free Speech Systems, were ordered to pay $965 million to family members of eight Sandy Hook victims and an FBI agent who responded to the scene of the December 14, 2012 Newtown, Connecticut mass shooting in which 26 people—including 20 elementary school students—were murdered.

“There will be more Alex Jones in this world, but what they learned here today is that they absolutely will be held accountable,” said Erica Lafferty, mother of slain Sandy Hook principal Dawn Lafferty Hochsprung, after she was awarded $76 million.

Francine Wheeler, whose 6-year-old son Ben was killed in the shooting, told the court: “It is one thing to lose a child. It’s quite another thing when people take everything about your boy who is gone, and your surviving child, and your husband, and everything you ever did in your life on the internet and harass you.”

The verdict is in: InfoWars’ Alex Jones owes the families of Sandy Hook victims about $1 billion for defamation.

Here are the full eight minutes of the verdict. pic.twitter.com/0z6xaMRDY0

— The Recount (@therecount) October 12, 2022

Christopher Mattei, an attorney for the plaintiffs, told reporters outside the courthouse that "the jury's verdict is a testament to that courage, in a resounding affirmation that people of goodwill, dedicated to the truth, mindful of their responsibilities to their fellow citizens can come together to protect the innocent, to reveal lies masquerading as truth, and to set right a historic wrong."

"You may say that is astronomical. It is," Mattei said of the judgment. "It's exactly what Alex Jones set himself up to do. That's what he built. He built a lie machine that could push this stuff out. You reap what you sow."

Spurred by Jones' lies, his supporters subjected the plaintiffs to menacing threats and merciless harassment, including accusing parents of faking their own children's deaths. Some of the plaintiffs described feeling unsafe in their hometown; some of the families even left Newtown.

Just how much harm has Alex Jones caused?
Well not only have the families from Sandy Hook gotten thousands of death threats. Now nearly 1 in 5 Americans believe mass shootings have been faked by groups trying to promote stricter gun-control laws.

— David Hogg ☮️ (@davidhogg111) October 12, 2022

 Read full article at Common Dreams

  alex jones, connecticutt, damages, jury, sandy hook, settlement