Late this afternoon, the jury in Alex Jones' second defamation trial awarded the families of eight victims in the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting, and one FBI agent, $965 million.
"Today, a jury representing our community rendered a historic verdict, a verdict against Alex Jones' lies and their poisonous spread, and a verdict for truth and our common humanity," Chris Mattei, the families' lead attorney said outside the courthouse.
The plaintiffs sought a sum of $550 million to match the total views his claims received, per CNN Business.
Ultimately, the jury awarded the plaintiffs nearly double the already enormous sum.
In the first trial earlier this year, Jones was ordered to pay nearly $50 million in punitive and compensatory damages to the families of one victim.
This brings the total award above $1 billion as Jones awaits to hear damages in a third defamation trial he lost to the parents of another victim.
Testimony from an employee of Jones pegged his total earnings from the sale of dietary supplements, books and survival gear at $100 million to $1 billion since the shooting, with $810,000 in sales on a single day in 2020.
Jones, primarily through his website and radio show Infowars, has claimed the shooting was a "false flag" operation using "crisis actors" to undermine gun rights. He admitted during the Texas trial in August that he believes it was "100% real."
Speaking on his website InfoWars, Jones said:
"This must be what Hell's like, they just read out the damages even though you don't got the money," adding "why not make it trillions?"
During another sidewalk press conference Jones denounced the judge and jury as "rigged" and mocked the trial as a "kangaroo court," adding that:
"they could get a $1 billion verdict, and they wouldn't get a dime."
Jones' attorney, Norm Pattis, said outside the courthouse on Wednesday: "We very, very, very much look forward to an appeal."
"We disagree with the basis of the default, we disagree with the court's evidentiary rulings. In more than 200 trials in the course of my career I have never seen a trial like this," Pattis added.
"Today is a very, very dark day for freedom of speech."
Free Speech Systems, the parent company of Infowars, declared bankruptcy in August for a second time this year in a bid to limit the cost of litigation damages.
via zerohedge