WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court on Tuesday denied conspiracy theorist Alex Jones’ appeal, thereby upholding the $1.4 billion judgment against him for claiming that the 2012 Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting was a fabricated event involving crisis actors.
EDITOR’S NOTE: The video above is from a previous broadcast and will be updated.
As the host of Infowars, Jones contended that the court’s decision to hold him accountable for defamation and causing emotional distress without a trial was incorrect, a stance he took in response to allegations from the families of the victims of the Newtown, Connecticut shooting, which resulted in the deaths of 20 first graders and six educators.
The justices issued their decision without comment and did not even require input from the Sandy Hook victims’ families regarding Jones’ appeal. Additionally, an FBI agent who was present during the tragedy had filed a lawsuit as well.
Jones declared bankruptcy towards the end of 2022, and his legal representatives informed the justices that the “plaintiffs have no possible hope of collecting” the full amount of the judgment.
He is also in the process of appealing a $49 million ruling in a related defamation case in Texas, stemming from his failure to provide documents requested by the parents of another Sandy Hook victim.
In the Connecticut case, the judge issued an unusual default ruling against Jones and his company in late 2021, citing Jones’ ongoing noncompliance with court orders and failure to supply evidence to the Sandy Hook families. Consequently, the judge called for a jury to determine the monetary damages Jones would be liable for.
The following year, the jury agreed on a $964 million verdict and the judge later tacked on another $473 million in punitive damages against Jones and Free Speech Systems, Infowars’ parent company, which is based in Austin, Texas.
In November, the satirical news outlet The Onion was named the winning bidder in an auction to liquidate Infowars’ assets to help pay the defamation judgments. But the bankruptcy judge threw out the auction results, citing problems with the process and The Onion’s bid.
The attempt to sell off Infowars’ assets has moved to a Texas state court in Austin. Jones is now appealing a recent order from the court that appointed a receiver to liquidate the assets. Some of Jones’ personal property is also being sold off as part of the bankruptcy case.
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