Infowars founder and conspiracy peddler Alex Jones has been ordered to pay more than $1 billion for lies he has told over the years about the 2012 Sandy Hook Elementary School massacre in Connecticut, a monumental fine that has left many wondering when the victims will ever receive their payout.
Jones on Wednesday was ordered to pay upward of $965 million in damages to eight families of the deceased shooting victims and an FBI agent who responded to the scene of the 2012 massacre as a consequence for describing the incident as a government “false flag,” while wrongfully labeling the victims’ families as “crisis actors.” The striking price tag adds to the $49 million Jones was ordered to pay by a Texas jury earlier this year to another victim’s family who brought a separate case.
Meanwhile, a third case against Jones brought by Lenny Pozner and Veronique De La Rosa, whose son Noah was one of 26 killed at Sandy Hook, is tentatively scheduled for later this year, though the date for the trial has not been set.
Jones signaled he intends to avoid paying the Sandy Hook families by keeping them in court through the appeals process as he attempts to delay his payout or even lower the amount he owes.
As the jury reads the damages and the Sandy Hook parents weep, Alex Jones is on his broadcast, laughing and assuring his audience that he won’t actually be paying any of this money.
“Do these people actually think they’re getting any of this money?” pic.twitter.com/k9brmHaBWC
— Brandy Zadrozny (@BrandyZadrozny) October 12, 2022
“Do these people think they’re actually getting any money?” Jones said in his Infowars studio during a live broadcast as the jury’s compensatory damages fees were recited Wednesday. “Literally, for hundreds of thousands of dollars, I can keep them in court for years,” he added.
But Richard Signorelli, a New York attorney and former federal prosecutor, told the Washington Examiner that Jones won’t be getting off that easy.
The plaintiffs’ attorneys are “never going away,” Signorelli said, adding, “They’re going to be on his back for at least the next 20 years to collect on this judgment.”
Jones has the ability to file a post-trial motion before he goes to appeal if he seeks to argue the damages are excessive, and a court could reduce some amount of the verdict to place it in line with an amount that is determined to be reasonable damages, though there is no guarantee for Jones.
Additionally, parties are typically allotted 30 days to appeal a verdict, meaning the Infowars host will likely be moving to appeal in the coming weeks.
“So the damage reward could be lower, but it’s still going to be astronomical, even if it is lowered. And it might not be lowered,” Signorelli said.
Chris Mattei, an attorney for the plaintiffs in the Connecticut trial, affirmed this week that they will press Jones and “recover as much of the verdict as we can in the near-term, and in the long-term, this verdict isn’t going anywhere.”
Throughout both trials, Jones has decried his defamation case as a “kangaroo court” overseen by “tyrant” judges while providing commentary over the trials and motivating his audience to purchase Infowars merchandise and make donations to bolster his legal fund. As of Thursday, it had raised more than $185,000 of its total $500,000 goal, according to the Washington Post.
Although Jones said Wednesday that he had less than $2 million on hand, a forensic economist testified during the Texas trial in August and estimated Jones’s entire net worth with his business entities to be between $135 million and $270 million.
Additionally, Jones’s parent media company, Free Speech Systems, has filed for bankruptcy. And Jones has said the parent company owes $54 million in debt to PQPR Holdings, a company also connected to the Infowars founder. If the debt is valid, it would likely be paid off before any judgments related to the defamation verdicts.
Attorneys for the families who sued in Texas court have alleged that the PQPR money transfers were “fraudulent transfers designed to siphon off” assets that could be affected by judgments, citing that at one point in 2021, when defamation cases were active, Jones was placing as much as $11,000 per day into payments toward PQPR.
According to Signorelli, “The issue here is whether this is a fraudulent conveyance. I don’t know whether it is or is not. It depends on the facts, and what the debt is for and his relationship with the other company.”
Signorelli added that there may need to be a subsequent “evidentiary hearing” about the particulars of the PQPR debt.
CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM THE WASHINGTON EXAMINER
The recently wrapped Connecticut trial was overseen by Judge Barbara Bellis, who issued a default ruling in November 2021 holding Jones liable for his false claims, meaning the six-member jury was only tasked with determining how much Jones and Free Speech Systems should pay to the families for defaming them and causing emotional distress.
The Washington Examiner contacted Infowars for a response.
