Conspiracy theorist and founder of Infowars Alex Jones led a “vile campaign of defamation” when he falsely claimed the 2021 Sandy Hook elementary school massacre was a Hoax, a Texas jury was told as the defamation case against Jones began in Texas.
Jones repeatedly “lied and attacked the parents of murdered children” when he told his audience the Sandy Hook shooting was a hoax, a lawyer said to a Texas jury.
The trial in Austin, Texas, began yesterday and will determine how much money the families receive.
The lawyer for two of the Sandy Hooks families that have sued the right-wing conspiracy theorist asked the jury Tuesday to award his clients $150 million in damages.
An attorney representing one of the victim’s parents, Mark Bankson, said in his opening statements that Jones created a “campaign of lies.”
“Harm that was done to the parents, grieving parents of murdered children who have had to endure for 10 years, the most despicable and vile campaign of defamation and slander in American history,” Bankston said.
Four years after the Sandy Hook shooting, Jones used his website to claim the shooting was faked, and a “false flag” operation. He said the parents pretended to grieve. He even mocked crying parents in a broadcast who had lost their children.
Judge Maya Guerro Gamble previously ruled against Jones after he failed to produce documents for court-ordered discovery in the case.
Jones and his site Infowars were held liable for all damages. The jury will decide how much he will pay.
He has already lost three other Sandy Hook-related defamation cases through default judgments and will face a jury in Connecticut that will decide on those damages in September.
Bankston said that Jones had profited from his lies, because it massively increased his audience, and he sold that audience product.
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