Alex Jones Ordered to Pay Parents $45 Million

“A Texas jury on Friday decided that the conspiracy theorist Alex Jones must pay the parents of a child killed in the 2012 Sandy Hook school shooting $45.2 million in punitive damages, one day after rendering a $4 million award for compensatory damages,” the New York Times reports.

“The jury announced both awards after several dramatic days in court that included testimony that Mr. Jones and Free Speech Systems, the parent company of his misinformation-peddling media outlet, Infowars, were worth between $135 million and $270 million.”

“Mr. Jones was found liable last year of defaming the victims’ families after he spread bogus theories that the shooting had been part of a government plot to confiscate Americans’ firearms and that the victims’ families had been complicit in the scheme. “