politics
Alex Jones no longer on-the-hook for $50 million owed to Sandy Hook families—but he still has $1.25 billion looming over his head
A Texas court on Friday slashed a $50 million judgment that conspiracy theorist Alex Jones was ordered to pay families of the 2012 Sandy Hook Elementary School massacre over his false claims that one of the deadliest mass shootings in U.S. history was a hoax.
TL;DR
- A Texas court reduced a $50 million judgment against Alex Jones to about $6 million, due to state laws limiting damages.
- The ruling does not impact a separate $1.25 billion judgment against Jones in Connecticut related to the Sandy Hook massacre.
- Jones' company, Free Speech Systems, faces liquidation, and families have yet to collect any money.
- The Texas court upheld over $4.1 million in compensatory damages but slashed punitive damages from over $45 million to $1.5 million.
- Jones views the reduction as a victory for the First Amendment, while families' attorney dismisses it as irrelevant given the larger Connecticut judgment.
- Victims' relatives testified that Jones' followers subjected them to harassment and threats, believing his false claims that the shooting was a hoax.