DALLAS — Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) defended Alex Jones at the Conservative Political Action Conference on Friday, the same day he was ordered to pay $45.2 million in punitive damages to the parents of a victim of the 2012 mass shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School.
Greene, who has been suspended from Twitter, claimed social media companies are trying to silence those on the Right, citing Jones as evidence of Big Tech’s ideological crackdown.
REP. ANDY BIGGS HECKLED BY CPAC FOR NOT DOING ENOUGH TO AID JAN. 6 DEFENDANTS
“Somebody like Alex Jones, who did say some things but yet he is being politically persecuted right now and being forced to pay out millions and millions of dollars, and no one agrees with what he said, but what we’re tired of is the political persecution,” she said during an onstage interview.
Greene asked when she and others who have been “canceled” on social media will be paid millions of dollars.
The damages, which were announced after Greene’s comments, may be reduced by the judge and follow the jury awarding the parents of 6-year-old Jesse Lewis, who died during the shooting, $4.1 million in compensatory damages from Jones. The parents said they faced death threats and other harassment tied to Jones’s claims that the shooting was a hoax, comments he later retracted.
The InfoWars host, who faces other similar defamation lawsuits from Sandy Hook families, has tried to hide evidence of his personal and company wealth, lawyers for the Sandy Hook families suing Jones said.
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Greene was locked out of her Twitter account several times after the social media giant found she was spreading misinformation about COVID-19 and the 2020 election. After her fifth strike, she was permanently suspended, a decision she appealed in April.
CPAC Texas began Thursday and is set to end Sunday. The conference has featured speeches from Ohio Senate candidate J.D. Vance, Sen. Ted Cruz (TX), and other high-profile figures in the GOP.
