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Alex Jones has been ordered by a 12-person jury to pay the parents of a Sandy Hook victim at least $4.1 million for the suffering and damage his lies and platforms have caused.
Scarlett Lewis and Neil Heslin, who’s 6-year-old son was a victim in the Sandy Hook massacre, originally sought $150 million for defamation and intentional infliction of emotional distress from the InfoWars host. The family testified that Jones’ lies have led to years of abuse by him and his followers, violence from strangers, and multiple death threats.
The jury awarded the family $4.1 million in compensatory damages, making this the first time Jones has been held financially responsible for the lies he spread about Sandy Hook.
During the defamation trial, Jones testified that he now believes Sandy Hook was “100% real,” despite years of calling it a hoax.
“I admitted I was wrong. I admitted it was a mistake. I admitted that I followed disinformation but not on purpose. I apologized to the families. And the jury understood that. What I did to those families was wrong. But I didn’t do it on purpose,” he said.
Jones was on his show InfoWars following Thursday’s verdict asking his followers for support if they want to see the show continue.
“If you wanna see the war room, or you wanna see Alex Jones…if you wanna see what we’re doing here, we need your support at InfoWars store dot com,” Jones said.
One of the more blockbuster moments of the trial happened this past week while Jones was on the stand. The lawyer for the parents informed Jones that his lawyer had accidentally sent the entire contents of his phone and text history to the family’s lawyer by mistake.
Jones was found liable by a judge because he did not hand over critical evidence before the trial began, including text messages and emails referring to Sandy Hook.
Jones could owe the family much more after Friday’s proceedings. On Friday the jury will determine punitive damages, which can be awarded for what a jury believes was especially egregious behavior by a defendant, in addition to the compensatory damages.
January 6 Committee Interested In Jones’ Texts
The attorney representing the two Sandy Hook parents said Thursday that multiple federal and state investigators have reached out to him and requested the two years worth of text messages he had mistakenly received.
“I am under request from various federal agencies and law enforcement to provide (the records),” Mark Bankston, the plaintiffs’ attorney, told Judge Maya Guerra Gamble. “Absent a ruling from you saying you cannot do that…I intend to do so immediately following this hearing.”
One of the federal investigators seeking Jones’ texts is the January 6 committee investigating the insurrection.
“I’ve been asked by the January 6 committee to turn the documents over,” Bankston added later.